Biscuit, coin to mark Ceylon Tea’s 150 years

Sri Lanka accounts for about 5% of the global output and it exports to 150 nations

TO GO WITH SRI LANKA-ECONOMY-TEA Sri Lankan shopworker Damith Gamage arranges a display of Sri Lankan packaged teas at a sales outlet in Colombo, 02 August 2007. Sri Lanka's tea export volumes fell by 10 percent in the first six months of this year, but earnings rose marginally by three percent, a commodity broker said. Tea, Sri Lanka's main export commodity, earned 439 million USD from January to June this year, a three percent increase compared to the same period last year. However, the volume of "Pure Ceylon Tea" exported fell to 136.9 million kilogrammes (301.18 million pounds) in the first six months of this year, down from 153 million kilogrammes last year, Asia Siyaka brokers said. AFP PHOTO/Lakruwan WANNIARACHCHI

Sri Lanka, the fourth-largest producer of tea, celebrates the sesquicentennial of its tea industry this month with a globally synchronised tasting session on July 6.

Accompanying the cuppa would be a biscuit specially crafted for the occasion by one of Sri Lanka’s oldest biscuit makers Maliban Biscuit Manufactories Pvt. Ltd. A Scotsman named James Taylor is reputed to have developed the first commercial plantation on Loolcondera Estate, Hewaheta in 1867.

A first-day cover, a stamp series and a 10-rupee coin will be released. Till August, one programme after another would be rolled out to mark the occasion. Sri Lanka is the world’s fourth-largest tea producer with an average output of 300 million kg, accounting for about 5% of world tea output according to Premala Srikantha, Director (Promotion) Sri Lanka Tea Board. The tea hedges are nestled in the hills and the valleys on a sloping terrain on the island’s central highlands and southern foothills, about 1,800 metres above sea-level.

Nuwara Eliya, Uva, Dimbula, Uda Pussellawa, Kandy, Ruhuna and Sabaragamuwa are the island’s prime tea-growing regions. Ceylon Tea and the seven agro-climatic regional teas have been registered as Geographical Indications.

The country exports nearly all its teas, carving out a place among the world’s top-three exporters. Exports are more in the form of value-added teas like tea packets and bags. A sizeable volume of the exports are as tea-bags and value-added tea exports now account for almost 38 % of the total export volume, Ms. Srikantha said. Ceylon exports its teas to about 150 countries.