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The Planters’ Association (PA) of Ceylon will celebrate its defining contribution to the country’s plantation industry as well as to the nation’s economy over the years, at its 160th Annual General Meeting (AGM) to be held on Friday (12 September).
Chief Guest, Secretary to the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Dr. P. B. Jayasundera, delivering the keynote address, will examine the plantation industry’s critical impact on the nation’s economy especially as the country’s single largest employer.
The PA was founded in 1854, by a group of pioneering coffee planters at ‘The Boarding House’ in Kandy, at which Capt. J. Keith Jolly and A. Brown were elected as its first Chairman and Secretary respectively. The PA now represents and promotes the interests of 190 members who collectively account for 40% of the country’s total output of tea, Sri Lanka’s second most important export item.
The membership manages 37% of the total area of tea and 36% of the total area of rubber under cultivation in the country, while accounting for a substantial portfolio of palm oil and coconut as well as 423 factories and production units.
PA’s resilience
In its 160 years the PA resiliently withstood ‘winds of change,’ weathering the impacts of two world wars, the great depression, fall of empires, insurrections, sweeping changes in government policy and countless natural disasters.
“One rarely finds an organisation that has that has not only survived, but has succeeded in continuously making an important, meaningful contribution over 160 years,” Planters’ Association (PA) Chairman Roshan Rajadurai said. “The PA’s resilience bears testimony to the inspired commitment of members both past and present. While the industry is facing several serious challenges, considering the magnitude of the challenges overcome by the PA so far, we are confident that the Association will continue to play a vibrant and vital role in the Sri Lankan economy in the coming years as well.”
Force to be reckoned with
Incorporated by an Act of Parliament in 1916, the PA emerged as a force to be reckoned with and made a significant contribution towards the development of the island’s economy and infrastructure. Throughout the colonial period and even after independence, up to the time of nationalisation of estates in 1975, it certainly lived up to the expectations of its founders and spoke with authority to the administrators and law makers of the land.
The PA was an organisation with authority and influence in the seats of power during that period. The headquarters of the PA were moved from Kandy to Colombo in 1947, so as to be nearer those seats of power and for greater efficiency in the numerous and wide-ranging activities in which the PA was actively involved. Public companies (sterling and rupee) became the major factor in the membership of the PA. 
With the nationalisation of estates under the Land Reform Law, the management of estates was taken over by the State and the functions of the PA were severely curtailed. However, the PA continued with its restricted activity from 1975 administering the Ceylon Planters’ Provident Society and the Estates Staff’ Provident Society while servicing a few proprietary estates until the wheel turned full circle, when in 1992 the Government decided to hand back the estates to the private sector, initially on a management contract. Subsequently the plantation sector was fully privatised, with the Government selling the majority of shares of the plantation companies to the private sector.
Voice of the plantation sector
Following the privatisation of the State-owned estates, the PA re-emerged as the voice of the plantation sector in Sri Lanka. Apart from being the apex body of eight district level planters’ associations, it represents the interests of the large privatised plantation companies who manage almost 400 tea and rubber estates between them, as well as the smaller proprietary plantations. In this new dimension, it serves as the vital link between the plantation industry and the Government.
Despite the changing situation, the PA’s main function continues to be that of protecting/promoting the interests of its members. As part of its policy, the PA’s actions and representations are directed at enhancing the industry’s credibility and image in the eyes of the Government and the public.
Significant highlights
