Monday, 18 November 2013 00:01
-
- {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Industry bodies, researchers and corporates gather to discuss issues affecting tea industry in Sri Lanka
The forum, hosted jointly by CARE Sri Lanka, the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP), and World University Services Canada (WUSC), follows up on last year’s Industry in Transition workshop.
The event will review changes that have taken place in the past year and will share lessons of a recent study tour to Kenya along with the findings of a number of recent research projects on the tea industry in Sri Lanka.
Tea talk
Sri Lanka Tea Board Chairperson Janaki Kuruppu will make the keynote address at the event on Sri Lanka’s current tea industry and its future, in a background where tea industry actors have been forced to adapt to a challenging future.
Other presenters include Dilhan Fernando from Dilmah, Dr. Dan Seevaratnam from Watawala Plantations PLC, Karin Fernando from the Centre for Poverty Analysis and the three partner organisations.
Increasing cost of production, changing dynamics of trade and consumption of tea and tea products, and the external threats of economic crisis and climate change have had serious effects in the industry, which stood at a Rs. 28 billion industry in 2012, according to Government data.
Review
A review of steps that have been taken to follow up on recommendation in last year’s Industry in Transition forum will include presentations on the fields of marketing, human resource development and Governmental support.
Participants of a study tour hosted by WUSC andETP to Kenya earlier this year will offer presentations on lessons learnt in the fields of production models, technology, and labour and specific steps that they have taken to mobilise those lessons upon return to Sri Lanka.
Research findings from WUSC, CARE and ETP on social development and wages in the tea sector will be released at the forum, and will include study on the relationships between social welfare and productivity on tea estates, a study on the social return on investment in tea estates, and a global wage study of the tea industry.
The event will be held in Colombo, on Wednesday, 20 November.
