Latin America comes in search of more Ceylon Tea; says big potential

Tuesday, 4 November 2014 02:15 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The first-ever delegation from Latin America is in town to buy more Pure Ceylon Tea, saying the region has great potential for the fresh brew with right customer awareness. A 31-member delegation from Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay and Colombia has arrived in Sri Lanka with the objective of exploring and learning about Ceylon Tea so it can be promoted effectively in that continent. Visiting Tea Commissioner of Sri Lanka for Latin America Diego Morlachetti expressed confidence over Ceylon Tea capturing a significant proportion of the continent’s beverage market as its population is looking to move away from consuming Yerba Mate, which has been linked with a number of side effects. “It is our intention to educate Latin American consumers on the benefits of consuming tea and the culture as this will create an avenue to purchase Ceylon Tea and create a new market. One of our key intentions is to create awareness as only that will help Ceylon Tea create a space for itself. For that we are taking a number of efforts to promote the health benefits of consuming tea,” said Morlachetti, also Argentina Tea School Director.

Morlachetti shared the group of nations are looking to purchase loose and value added tea. While Latin America has ruled out purchasing from China, India and Kenya, he said consumers were willing to pay a premium for Ceylon Tea for its superior quality. “We find it difficult to deal with China due to the language barrier, India as most of its teas are consumed internally, and Kenya due to sanitary reasons is not a safe market. Trading with Sri Lanka is ideal for us as we get high quality tea for a competitive price.” Noting that much has to be done to promote Ceylon Tea, he said even if there is no market it would be created by increasing awareness. Sri Lanka currently exports three million kilos of tea per year to Latin America and aims at increasing it to 10 million kilos in two years. The size of the beverage market in terms of consumption is approximately 60 million kilos per year in Latin America, of which 30 million kilos is consumed in Chile and 10 million in Argentina.