Tea renews appeal to remove weedicide ban

• Low production and earnings recorded in 2016, tea can recover if proper polices implemented

With tea production dropping to a nine-year low, stakeholders painted a bleak picture of the industry at the recently concluded Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Tea Traders' Association, urging producers to improve quality.

Tea Traders Association Chairman Anslem Perera, who was reappointed to the post, said that the extremely low production of 292 kg billion was a result of the extreme weather conditions experienced and the ban imposed on the principal weedicide used in plantations.

“It was banned without any consultation or warning, and in the absence of a suitable alternative. This significantly impaired productivity and increased cost,” he said, adding that manual weeding was costly and not an option due to labour shortages.

With no effective weeding, applying fertiliser has become ineffective he said.

Perera highlighted that despite representations made to the highest authorities of the Government no change to the ban has been brought about, putting the industry at risk.

“We are all shocked that an ill-informed single individual who is neither a scientist nor a plantation expert had greater weight than all of us in the industry put together. This weedicide is effectively used in western countries,” he said.

He urged the Government and political leaders to take responsibility for taking such “irrational decisions which has hurt a 150-year-old industry.”

Tea pricing was affected by the oil crisis in the Middle East, sanctions imposed on Russia, Iran and the Middle East and crop loss due to bad weather conditions, while poor quality and reduced exports have sliced export earnings during the last two years, Perera said.

According to him, during the last two years tea earnings have dropped compared to 2014, which recorded $ 1.6 billion. In 2015 it dropped to $ 1.34 billion and in 2016 the earnings further dropped to $ 1.25 billion.

“When prices and volumes have both dropped, we have managed to tighten the industry when teas were selling below the cost of production. Producers suffered heavily,” he said.

 Value added segments have been forced to reduce prices, which has had a negative impact on the trade. However, expressing confidence in the industry making a full recovery, Perera urged the industry and the country’s political leadership to work together, putting aside personal interests.

Perera also lamented over the quality losses in the tea produced in the country. Calling for a cordial relationship between producers and traders, he said that if the industry was to survive, quality had to improve.

“A large percentage of our production falls far short of the capacity in terms of quality,” he highlighted.

Perera said that the industry has to also focus on value addition to retain the market and spoke of the need to set up the tea hub which has been recommended in the 2016 Budget and approved by Parliament.