Reception for welcome the Minister of Plantation Hon. Mahinda Samarasinghe
12 October, 2010
A reception was held at the Ambassador of Sri Lanka’s Residence on 12th October 2010 in honour of the visiting Hon. Mahinda Samarasinghe, Minister of Plantation Industries of Sri Lanka and delegation to Russian Federation. The delegation visited Moscow & St. Petersburg from 10-16th October with a view to obtain a firsthand knowledge of the economic & trade issues pertaining to Ceylon Teas. The Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tea Board Mr. Susantha Ratnayake and Mr. Hasitha De Alwis-Director(Tea Promotion) of Sri Lanka Tea Board also accompanied Hon. Minister.
Also the following members accompanied Hon. Minister representing private sector.
Mr. Jayantha Karunaratne – Managing Director – Imperial Teas(Pvt)Ltd.
Mr. Rohan Fernando – Managing Director – HVA Group
Mr. Hiran Karunaratne – Director – Hyleys Teas Co. Ltd.
Mr. Tyeab Akbarally – Director – Akbar Brothers Ltd.
Mr. Mufaddal Jafferjee – Director – Jafferjee Bros.
Mr. Dai Pathmanathan – Managing Director- George Steuart(Teas) Pvt. Ltd.
Mr. Mohan Mendis – Director – U.K. Beverages (Pvt) Ltd.
The Reception was attended by representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russian Federation, Ambassadors from major countries and members of the diplomatic community. In addition several Members of business community of Sri Lankans in Russian Federation, heads of the major tea companies in Russian federation were also present. The reception provided an opportunity for the members of the delegation to interact with their interlocutors in an informal atmosphere. All present partook of the delicious Sri Lankan fare that was on offer.
Ambassador Udayanga Weeratunga in his welcome speech to the participants noted a great meaning of tea for Russia and wished high business achievement and fruitful work at future.
Also Ambassador Weeratunga explained the mission and vision of Sri Lanka Tea board and their achievements of past 24 years to the participants.
Ambassador stated that Russia has a long history of tea drinking because of its proximity to China and Central Asia. Russia is the largest market for tea in the world, both in terms of all tea varieties, as well as for just black tea. In 2009 in terms of retail value the Russian market was worth $ 500 million and in terms of retail volume it was 184 million kg. The Russian market also has one of the highest per capita consumption rates for tea. In 2009, per capita consumption of tea in Russia was 1.12 kg compared to the average global per capita consumption of tea, which was 0.3 kg in the same year. Retail prices for tea in Russia are relatively high and growing.
Hon. Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe addressed the invitees and said that the major challenge confronting our tea industry today is to retain its preferred production targets and maintain the quality which is synonymous with “Ceylon Tea”. With regard to production targets, its share in Russian market, percentagewise it has declined over the last 2 years to almost half of its original share.
This has been due to aggressive competition from other tea producing countries and the very low rate of replanting and equally low productivity and the high production cost and the absence of an aggressive marketing cum promotional strategy of Ceylon Tea.
Our policy is to ensure that a major quantity of our teas find markets in value added form. We can certainly look at what kind of incentives should be provided to the industry for this purpose. The tea sector being a vital commercial sector, the country has a right to expect a substantial contribution from this sector to government revenue to augment urgent development needs of the country, especially when we as a nation are having insurmountable challenges in the immediate aftermath of a post conflict situation.
The Sri Lanka Tea Board will work together with Russian Companies and buyers to ensure the good name of our teas. We have taken several steps to strengthen the relation between Sri Lanka Tea Board and Russian tea sellers.
The Minister also said that tea was the drink of the 21st century and it certainly had a future, but Sri Lanka had to make it competitive in the global economy.
Also Hon. Minister mentioned about his meeting with Hon. Elena Skrynnik, Minister of Agriculture of Russian Federation, informed that they had conversations about the Russian involvement or support to the Sri Lanka sugar industry. Minister explained that almost 95% of the sugar need Sri Lanka is importing and meantime Sri Lanka has vast land capacity to improve the production, and therefore Russian Federation’s technology and advice will be an advantage for Sri Lanka.
Madam Weertunga arranged a delicious Sri Lankan dinner buffet at the end of the reception. Also Hyleys Tea Company arranged special tea counter to cater participants.
