“Tea industry lost in new budget proposal”

With regard to the news item under the above heading which appeared in last week’s Business Times, my view is that the tea industry has not got lost based on the budget proposals but has been wondering in the wilderness for the past many years.

The unfortunate fact is that the people in charge of the industry apparently do not wish to accept facts and take the necessary steps but give frivolous excuses for their lapses. This is not how responsible people should act or react. Two reputed former directors of the Tea Research Institute referred to the plantations industry as a lame duck, about three years ago!

I believe the local tea industry should be taken as two sectors, the foundation being the tea plantations industry (TPI) and tea exporter industry (EI). Without the TPI there would not be an EI to export Ceylon Tea.

Tea produced by the TPI, made up of 70 per cent by the smallholders and the balance by the larger estates, happens to obtain the best prices compared to what other countries produce. If the quality of Ceylon Tea is improved, naturally it should fetch higher prices.

How many exporters have gone bankrupt or given up their business? How many tea estates are running at a loss and how many RPCs are optimistic about the viability of tea plantations, as they exist today? The RPCs keep on grumbling but have any offered to hand back the estates they manage to the Government? Otherwise, why not? If the extent under tea managed by a single RPC is to be reduced they should discuss this with great interest as they can reduce their losses.

Roshan Rajadurai, former President of the Planters Association, said (during his tenure) that the answer to the crisis is in the hands of the workers who pluck or pick the green leaf ! During the past 149 years of the TPI, I wonder whether anyone has praised the working hands of the women pluckers?

The biggest problem with the TPI is the low productivity of land. Apparently the industry experts do not wish to accept this and consider solutions that have to be taken to overcome it. There are several solutions that can be implemented to overcome this most serious problem but, nothing can be done unless the problem is acknowledged. Hemal de Silva Colombo