Sri Lanka’s tea industry is enthusiastic about a $3.5 billion goal for exports by 2030. To be successful, production will need to increase to an estimated 350 million kilos, according to the Colombo Tea Traders’ Association (CTTA).
The group conducted its 125th-anniversary gathering in August. Tea production stalled around 300 million kilos for the past two decades with a notable exception in 2013 when the crop peaked at 340 million kilos. Production was 304 million kilos in 2018.
Sri Lanka consistently produces some of the most expensive tea at an auction where average prices greatly exceed export rivals Kenya and India. Revenue form exports is up and down, reaching a peak of $1.63 billion in 2014. Exports are at a high just now, earning $682 million for the first six months of the year, up 7% compared to 2018, according to government officials.
“Our target is 350 million kilos of tea production and 3.5 billion US dollars in exports,” Michael de Soyza a former CTTA told the gathering.
Stakeholders including tea brokers, exporters and planters are establishing working groups to ascertain the gradual changes required in the industry, part of an ongoing process to implement a USAID program under which exports increased. The USAID’s Sri Lanka Competitiveness Program ran till 2007.