Nimal Udugampola, Chairman of the Small Tea Estates Development Authority, said that two hundred and twenty-five tea factories in Sri Lanka have closed so far. He said this at a program held at the Rakadahena Tea Factory premises in Elpitiya. The workshop was organized to educate small tea estate owners in the Galle district.
Expressing further, he said that the main reason for the closure of tea factories is the shortage of tea leaves. He said that the decrease in tea leaf yield and the decrease in the quality of tea leaves are other factors that have affected it.
The Chairman of the Small Tea Estates Development Authority said that due to this shortage of tea leaves, the tea industry has become unsustainable and that the tea industry in our country cannot be allowed to continue in this way.
He said that a target has been set to produce forty million kilograms of finished tea in 2030 and that in the 157-year history of the Sri Lankan tea industry, the country has never produced such a large amount of tea and that the highest finished tea production in this country so far was in 2013 and it was only one million and thirty-four kilograms of finished tea.
Regarding the statement of the Chairman of the Small Tea Estates Development Authority, Nimal Udugampola, that two hundred and twenty-five tea factories have closed by now, the Tea Commissioner of the Sri Lanka Tea Board, Mahesh Jayawardena, says that he is not aware of the exact number of tea factories that have closed, but that he is investigating.
“Usually, twenty to twenty-five tea factories close every year and the same number or a similar number of new tea factories are started. There are also cases where the management of tea factories changes,” Tea Commissioner Mahesh Jayawardena said further.
Evergreen Tea Industries Group Director Dushara Geeganage, General Manager B.W.T. Nadeeshan, Deputy General Manager of the Small Tea Estates Development Authority Rohitha Waidyaratne, Regional Manager of the Authority Indika Mohotti Lanka, Assistant Commissioner of the Tea Board L.K. Ajith, Pradeep Alwis of the Sri Lanka Tea Research Institute and a group of others participated in this workshop.