Tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage. However, tea is more than just a beverage. It is a package of inherently healthful ingredients for the body and mind, according to tea experts.
Tea and health have always been inextricably linked after its legendary discovery by the father of agriculture and medicine, Chinese Emperor Shen Nung, about 5,000 years ago.
Originally, tea was regarded as a medicinal curiosity and subsequently gained status as a social beverage. Tea is considered one of the healthiest beverages and today, most people drink tea because it is pleasant and refreshing. Like any other plant material, tea also contains antioxidant flavonoids. Antioxidants are compounds that help clean harmful compounds from the blood. Research has shown that antioxidants could reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and cancer.
Recent research has shown that antioxidants may protect against Alzheimer’s and other age-related memory impairments.
Both green tea and black tea have similar antioxidant capacities, which are substantially higher than that of fruit and vegetables.
Go to any corner of the world and Sri Lanka figures as one of the major countries for tea. In fact, the Sri Lankan tea is the most sought after in the Middle East and Asia and some other regions of the world. Tea is Sri Lanka’s main agricultural export commodity and accounts for about 15 percent of the total export earnings of the country. It is the second largest foreign exchange earner of the island. Last year, its tea exports generated $850 million.
Tea was introduced to Sri Lanka by the British on a commercial scale in 1867. The country was then known as Ceylon. It was first discovered in China and became popular in Europe and their colonies in the 1600s.
The Portuguese developed a trade route to ship tea form China to Lisbon and the Dutch ships transported it to Holland and France. Great Britain was the leader of the great sea-fairing nations to break into the Chinese and East Indian trade routes. After the Treaty of Nanking in 1840 and control of India, tea became an important part of British trade. However, commercial level of tea plantation became a reality in Sri Lanka due to the destruction of coffee plantation by a leaf disease.
The annual tea production of Sri Lanka has moved up to about 320 million kg today and accounts for nine percent of the global tea production. The privatization process of Sri Lankan tea industry, from early 1990s, greatly contributed toward this improvement in the crop output. The diversity in specialty of its orthodox tea process has been the power and strength of the tea industry in Sri Lanka.
Nuwara Eliya, Uva, Dimbula, Uda Pussellawa, Kandy, Ruhuna and Sabaragamuwa are among the prime tea growing regions of Sri Lanka. Over the years, Sri Lanka has earned a reputation as a producer of high quality tea and Ceylon Tea is synonymous with quality and taste. A few decades ago, the country was exporting only black tea in bulk, but today its export profile has gone through significant development to cater to the changing world consumer demand. The product range includes black tea, green tea, instant tea, organic tea, flavored tea and RTD tea products. The export of organic or bio tea commenced several decades ago and at present the organic tea volume has reached 2,000 tones per year, while instant tea volume is abut 1,500 tons. Green tea is another segment that has experienced a rapid growth and today the export of green tea has increased up to 3,000 tons per year.
Sri Lanka exports a large quality of tea packets and tea bags to add value to its tea that any other tea producing country in the world. The value added tea exports account for nearly 40 percent of the total export volume.
Ceylon tea is exported in a wide range of packets — box board cartons, foil packs, soft wooden boxes, metal cans, ceramic jars, wooden boxes, etc. The tea bags component has now reached 20 million kg per year.
Until early 1970s, the UK was the prime destination for Ceylon Tea. Most of the teas produced in the country by British plantation companies were exported to the UK for blending, packing and marketing. With the nationalization of the plantation industry in Sri Lanka, the country had to look for new markets as the British planters decided to move away from the island.
Firstly, it was the Middle Eastern markets that opened the door for Ceylon Tea. At present, over 50 percent of Ceylon Tea exports reach Middle East. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Tunisia and Lebanon are among the leading importing countries of Ceylon Tea in the Middle East and Gulf region.
Since early 1990s, the Russian Federation and CIS countries emerged as major buyers of Ceylon Tea. In fact, Russia is the single largest buyer of Ceylon Tea now and its annual off-take from Sri Lanka is about 70 million kg.
Sri Lankan teas reach about 130 countries today. The European Union is also a significant buyer of Ceylon Tea and its annual import volume from the island is around 30 million kg, while Japan, Australia and Far Eastern countries absorb another volume of 25 million kg. The North American markets of the United States and Canada too have been importing a large quantity of Ceylon Tea. The Sri Lankan tea also contributes to social and economic wellbeing of the country since more than one million people depend directly or indirectly on it for their livelihood. The team industry is also linked to the development of road and rail network, Colombo port, airport, packaging and light engineering sectors of the country.
The island’s name was changed from Ceylon to Sri Lanka when it became a socialist democratic republic in 1972, but ‘Ceylon Tea’ retained its name since Ceylon Tea has become world famous for tea.
The Sri Lanka Tea Board, the apex body responsible for development and promotion of Ceylon Tea, has taken many steps to ensure that all teas produced and exported from the island adhere to the minimum quality standards of ISO 3720. Ceylon Tea has been recognized as the cleanest tea in the world in terms of pesticide residues by the International Standards Organization. Currently, many Sri Lankan Tea manufacturers and exporters have obtained ISO, HACCP and other international certifications to be ahead of the other tea producing countries and also to cater to the changing global consumer requirements.
Fair trade, ethical tea partnership and good manufacturing practices are among the other concepts followed by the Sri Lanka Tea Trade to move into the 21st century. The commitment of all stakeholders in the industry has helped Sri Lanka to sustain its leadership in the world orthodox tea market and also in value added tea export.
The contribution made by Tea Research Institute toward the development of Ceylon Tea industry during the last few decades is also significant.
Total Sri Lankan tea products in 2006 stood at 310.8 million kg and the country reached third position in the list of main tea producers behind China and India. Sri Lanka regained the prestigious position as the main tea exporter in the world in that year by exporting 327.4 million kg of tea earning about $850 million.
Total tea production of Sri Lanka up to November 2007 was 273 million kg. It was a slight drop compared with the 289 million kg recorded for the same period in the previous year. The work stoppage at the end of 2006 and adverse weather conditions prevailed in some parts of the country in early 2007 were the contributory factors for this decline in the tea output. Total tea exports from January to October 2007 was 245 million kg compared with the 262 million kg exported during the corresponding period of 2006. Though the export volume has decline last year, the value of exports recorded a significant improvement. Industry exports predict that when statistics are finalized for 2007, the year would mark with export earnings reaching 100 billion Sri Lankan rupees.