The current year had been a good year for the plantation industry despite some problems, Plantation Minister Dr. Ramesh Pathirana said recently at a function to felicitate a group of officers who had completed 25 years of service in the Tea Small Holdings Development Authority. Exports of rubber, coconut and cinnamon had generated a record USD 4 billion in export earnings in 2021, the minister added.

“The agricultural sector in general and the plantation industry in particular have faced a severe crisis this year. Those crises arose with the ban on fertiliser but we have already found solutions to the problem. Do not hesitate to get involved in the plantation industry, because whatever the challenges, we are committed to making the tea industry a profitable industry next year,” Plantation Minister Pathirana said.

The Minister said that around USD 4 billion expected from rubber, coconut and cinnamon exports in the year would be the highest export earnings in history for the sector. There was a potential to harvest about 305 million kilos of tea in 2022. In 2021 there were a lot of new tea planting initiatives.

“We are also ready to provide tea plants and compost fertilizer free of charge to anyone who wishes to grow tea. We need to go beyond traditional methods and only then, we will be able to build a better plantation economy. Many people have already asked for tea plants. It is our responsibility to provide them with the necessary technical know-how and high yielding tea plants,” he said.

Minister Pathirana said that the government had given permission to import fertilizer again and that there would be sufficient fertilizer by February. The price of fertilizer in the world market had increased and thus its price would continue to be a problem, he said.

State Minister of Company Establishment Reforms, Tea Estate Crops, Tea Factory Modernization and Tea Export Diversification Kanaka Herath said that the government had allocated Rs. 4 billion to support tea smallholders.