Despite the hard labour of tea-sector employees and repeated warnings by its industry experts, the overnight ban on chemical fertiliser that came into effect resulted in a loss of approximately $175 million based on the 2022 prices, Planters' Association of Ceylon Chairman Senaka Alawattegama said.
He made this revelation while commenting on allegations against Regional Plantation Companies (RPC) on Tuesday (20) during the press conference held at the Sri Lanka Tea Board Auditorium on “Outlook of Sri Lanka’s tea industry amidst current global conditions and rampant misinformation.”
He pointed out that the revenue that was lost due to the ban of chemical fertiliser would have been able to fund over a quarter of Sri Lanka’s total import bill for 2022 when the country plunged into the unprecedented economic crisis due to the dwindled reserves.
Alawattegama stated: “By the end of 2022, tea exports recorded a sharp decline reducing 48 million kilograms to just 251 million kilograms. It is the lowest volume on record in nearly half a century.”
Although the production and exports were “slightly disrupted” during the Pandemic, the Government, the industry, the trade unions, and RPC workers ensured the operational continuity, and the tea production was gradually increased to almost towards pre-pandemic levels by reaching 299 million kilograms by 2021.
“In 2019, we (tea industry) were producing just over 300 million kilograms of tea,” he added.
He stressed that since the resumption of the fertiliser supply, the production demonstrates signs of recovery while the lost revenue was “entirely self-inflicted and completely avoidable” as it was focused on short-term politics instead of long-term sustainability.
Alawattegama also criticised the media and policy makers saying that they “briefly discussed” the received fertiliser supply, moving to the debate on wages in the face of anticipated elections.
“The Planters’ Association has consistently called for sweeping reforms for the outdated, colonial wage model to transform it into a favourable model for more than a decade as we believe that would drastically enhance the livelihoods of our workers mitigating high cost of production.”
Planters’ Association of Ceylon Media Spokesman Roshan Rajadurai said that approximately 2 million people are employed in the plantation industry directly and indirectly.
The representatives from the Sri Lanka Tea Board, the Ministry of Plantation Industries, the Planters’ Association of Ceylon, the Ceylon Tea Traders’ Association, The Federation of Tea Small Holders, Tea Exporters’ Association, Sri Lanka Tea Factory Owners Association, Tea Exporters’ Association, the Ceylon Brokers’ Association & Plantation Human Development Trust were among the speakers.