Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Tea must differentiate itself from its competitor tea export markets by honing in on regenerative agriculture best practices, Hayleys Group Managing Director and former Planters Association Chairperson Roshan Rajadurai said, at the Asian International Tea Summit held in Colombo, yesterday (27).

“In terms of tea industries, our tea industry is over-certified; either consumers demand so many conformances and compliances which are not remunerative. How we can get an advantage of this is differentiation,” Rajadurai said, noting the increase in the focus on sustainable compliance in the international market.

Sri Lanka’s tea export earnings performance saw a 0.21% year-on-year decrease in the month of October, compared to the same time last year, down to $ 126.55 million in monthly earnings, data from the Export Development Board (EDB) shows.

However, cumulative earnings from January to October increased in year-on-year terms by 8.72% to $ 1,289.58 million, in comparison to the same period in 2024. The increase was attributed to the performance in export of tea packets, which was 15.18% of tea export earnings.

“We have to leverage the certifications or the recognition, acceptance by the consumers and specialize,” Rajadurai said. “We need to elevate that particular product as a Regenagri product, and then approach the market.”

Rajadurai noted that the implementation of regenerative practices, as provided by Regenagri, has in the more recent past yielded successful outcomes.

“The journey has started in the last two years, we found some early successes in that we went away from the traditional practice of producing agroforestry, rare tea and specialty tea – which is finding some traction. The way to go is to invest in Regenagri, and thereafter offer it as a separate product.”

Regenagri is a global programme that supports and certifies farms and agribusinesses in their transition to regenerative agriculture.