Glyphosate ban set to brew up trouble for Lankan tea exports
„Tea Board chief says Lankan tea exports may face restriction due to use of alternative chemicals „Unauthorized chemicals in Lankan tea exports to Japan and Germany detected last month „Rates situation as “very serious”; but government not ready to listen
With the ban of the weed killer glyphosate without scientific evidence, some planters have started using alternative chemicals, running the risk of Ceylon Tea exports becoming banned in overseas markets, according to Ceylon Tea Board Chairman Rohan Pethiyagoda.
“Many plantation owners have started using alternatives which are not authorized. These are now coming up in various countries. Sooner or later, this is going to lead to importing countries putting restrictions on Sri Lankan tea exports,” he said.
According to him, there were detections of excessive residue of such alternative, unauthorized chemicals in Ceylon Tea exports to Germany and Japan last month.
“It’s a very serious problem, but I cannot wake up this government to think seriously about it. Goodness knows, we have tried,” he said.
Glyphosate was banned in 2015 through a Presidential Order, following the lobbying of Presidential Advisor, and MP Athuraliye Rathana Thero, who blamed the chemical for causing the chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology (CKDU) in the North Central and Uva Provinces.
“Who should have taken that decision? We have a Registrar of Pesticides; we have a Fertilizer Secretariat; we have a Medical Research Institute and we have a Tea Research Institute, (but) nobody was consulted. Somebody woke up in the morning and said ‘Ooh, let’s ban Glyphosate’. And till this day, there’s nobody accountable for that decision,” Pethiyagoda said.
He noted how Plantation Industries Minister Navin Dissanayake has submitted three proposals to reverse the ban to no avail, and that no one is able to say exactly why the chemical was banned.
Numerous scientists, agriculturalists and agricultural economists have pointed out that there is no scientific reasoning behind the ban.
The ban has caused tea production costs to skyrocket, with planters having to resort to manual labour. However, Pethiyagoda said that the complaining has been minimal over the past year only because tea prices have hit record levels.
He noted that the Tea Research Institute could provide an alternative, but the politicians are not providing the institute with enough funding for such action.