Maskeliya and Namunukula continue to grow and improve in 2020
The two large plantation companies, namely Maskeliya Plantations PLC and Namunukula Plantations PLC are owned by Richard Pieris Group of Companies.
They have the highest land base situated in different agro climatic area such as Maskeliya/upcot, where 10 plantations are situated, four in Talawakelle, four in Bandarawela and six in Namunukula (Uva).
The two estates make different types of tea, which belong to different agro climatic regions, giving different tastes and liquor, according to the climatic condition.
In Maskeliya region are Moray, Laxapana, Mousakellie, Glentilt, Brunswick, Mocha, Glenugie, in Upcot region – Strathspey and in Talawakelle region St. Clair, Talawakelle, Troup in Bandarawela region Craig, Ampittiakande, Poonagalla, in Namunukula region (Uva) Kinnellen, Hindagala, Gonakelle/canavarella.
These estates have embarked on diversification such as large-scale planting of fruit plants such as pears, mandarin, avacado, goa, cinnamon, agarwood, hybrid coffee, high-value timber such as sandalwood, mahogany, jak, medicinal and native plants, etc.
All the estates have commenced one project for one division, which is a noble concept initiated by MPPLC/ NPPLC (Uva) CEO Manoj Pathiraja. The success of these projects is personally monitored by him.
The Brunswick/strathspey/ Talawakelle factories produce and contribute in large volume to the national tea production in the western high grown area and most of the factories achieve top prices in the public auctions. This is mainly for producing teas in highly hygienic factories being complied with the local and international certification requirements.
All the factories are certified by local and international accreditation, which are required by the tea buyers such as
ISO:22000 (FSMS) (RA) Rainforest Alliance, (FLO) Fair Trade, UTZ, (CQC) Ceylon Quality Certificate by Sri Lanka Tea Board, (ETP) Ethical Tea Partnership, National Quality Award, Star Award, Presidential Environmental
Award, etc., Safety Award, Safety Award, Business Excellence Award, etc. (National Chamber of Commerce).
The following welfare activities are done to the workers and population living in the plantations. They have been looked after from the womb to the tomb by the plantations. There are well-developed child development centres available in the plantations in each division, which are managed by well-trained child development officers, who are diploma holders in child care and child sociology.
All the estate maternity wards, dispensaries are managed by the estate medical practitioners and free healthcare facilities are given. Periodical health camps are conducted by medical professionals.
Estates are used to new technologies such as machine plucking and machine pruning in order to overcome worker shortage. All the factories have modernday machinery with large capacities to handle excess crops with wellexperienced staff and skilled workers are engaged in the manufacturing process.