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Lanka crisis is personal for Origin Tea brothers

Social and economic crisis engulfing Sri Lanka is half a world away but feels very close to home for brothers Chris and Lawrence Seaton in Brisbane, says a report by Brisbane Financial Review.
Their burgeoning Brisbane-based business, Origin Tea, is about to go mainstream with the supermarket launch of products previously only available in cafés.
“We want to keep money flowing into the economy and into the pockets of locals,” Chris said.
The challenge is that the tea comes from Sri Lanka, where a financial crisis is causing severe shortages of essential goods such as fuel, medicine and food.
About 200 people work at Origin Tea’s factory in Sri Lanka, which is experiencing daily power cuts that last up to eight hours. This means switching to diesel generators, which increases production costs by 10 per cent to 20 per cent.
Chris Seaton was in Sri Lanka last month and was shaken by what he saw.
“Sri Lankan families don’t even have gas cyllinders so they can cook and put food on the table,” he said.
“Inflation there is heading towards 30 per cent, which puts all of the cost of living and interest rate talk here in perspective.
Sri Lanka is on the brink of bankruptcy and people have taken to the streets demanding the resignation of the president, who they hold responsible for the economic crisis.
A drop in tourism means the South Asian country is running desperately low on foreign currency reserves and is struggling to import fuel, medical supplies and raw materials.
Along with additional costs for diesel at the factory, pandemic-related supply chain problems mean Origin Tea must pay $6000 for every shipping container it brings to Australia, a six-fold increase on the $1000 it paid before COVID-19.
But the Seaton brothers are refusing to give up on their Sri Lankan operation.
Chris made an urgent trip to Colombo last month to establish new suppliers because local manufacturers could no longer import what they needed, including packaging.
Many Sri Lankans spend their days vying for the limited fuel stocks, so Origin Tea had to organise a shuttle bus, so employees could get to work.
“My role has changed to focusing on how to get dollars into the country because the people who manufacture our cardboard and tea bags can’t pay their suppliers,” Seaton said.
“We want to keep money flowing into the economy and into the pockets of locals.”
Origin Tea was established in 2012 when Chris and Lawrence were fresh out of university and in their early 20s.
Their vision was to “make tea cool”.
“We saw a gap in the market for single origin tea, as single origin coffee became the latest buzzword,” Chris said. “Origin Tea is one of the few offering traceability of high-grade Ceylon tea from a single origin in Sri Lanka.”
Unlike blends, single origin products guarantee provenance.
Until the pandemic, Origin Tea was largely a wholesale business, with products stocked in 1000 cafés nationally.
COVID-19 made the Seaton brothers realise they needed to sell directly to consumers, and their Origin Sticky Chai will be available in supermarkets from next month.
Agribusiness is in their blood. Their grandfather, Donald Seaton, was the founder of oilseed crushing business Gardner Smith, which was run by dad Gary until it was sold to GrainCorp in 2011.
“We have always been about making tea fun and cool but with the situation in Sri Lanka becoming more serious by the day, making and exporting our tea has become vital to helping locals feed their families,” Chris said.
Australian National University economist Sriram Shankar said Sri Lanka’s crisis was caused by many factors, including a heavy dependence on China for domestic investment, external debt and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Tourism had also come to a standstill as the government was accused of political corruption.
“President Gotabaya Rajapaksa made large tax cuts that affected government revenue and fiscal policies, causing budget deficits to soar,” Dr Shankar said.
“I think Sri Lanka is on the verge of bankruptcy, as it has recently announced suspension of its foreign debt payments.
“For recovery, in the short term it needs to be bailed out by the IMF. It is currently negotiating a deal with the IMF. However, in the medium term it needs to initiate serious economic reforms to overcome the crisis.”
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President and representatives of IMF discuss progress of EFF

A comprehensive discussion regarding the progress of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) took place on Thursday (06) at the Presidential Secretariat, between President Anura Kumara Disanayake and the IMF delegation.
The current government has already reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF on the third review regarding the extended arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of USD3 billion.
The details of this review are expected to be presented to the International Monetary Fund’s Board of Directors by the end of this month. In this regard, discussions were held regarding the progress and the government’s involvement in continuing the program moving forward.
Once the approval is granted by the IMF Executive Board, Sri Lanka is expected to release the fourth tranche of the extended loan, amounting to 333 million dollars.
The discussion was also attended by IMF Executive Director Dr. Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Alternate Executive Director Dr. P. K. G. Harischandra, Deputy Minister of Economic Development Dr. Anil Jayantha Fernando, Secretary to the President Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake, Secretary to the Ministry of Finance Mahinda Siriwadana, and Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe.
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New Commanders of the Tri-Forces meet the President

The newly appointed Commander of the Tri-Forces met with Commander-in-Chief, President Anura Kumara Disanayake on Thursday (6th) afternoon at the Presidential Secretariat.
The meeting was attended by Lieutenant General Lasantha Rodrigo, the new Army Commander; Vice Admiral Kanchana Banagoda, the new Navy Commander and Air Marshal Vasu Bandu Edirisinghe, the new Air Force Commander.
Following tradition, the new commanders formally met with the President after assuming their duties. During the meeting, they also presented the President with a commemorative token.
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Musk reveals ‘crazy waste’ of USAID funds in Sri Lanka

USD 7.9 mn spent on teaching Lankan journalists how to avoid “binary-gendered language”
USAID has spent $7.9 million to teach Sri Lankan journalists how to avoid “binary-gendered language”, Elon Musk who heads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said in a post on X on Thursday.
Musk called it a “Crazy waste of your tax money!”
Musk’s criticism came with a detailed breakdown of USAID’s spending across various countries, which he argued reflects misguided priorities. According to a document Musk shared, USAID has funded a range of projects globally, including $20 million for a new Sesame Street show in Iraq, $4.5 million to “combat disinformation” in Kazakhstan, and $6 million to transform digital spaces to reflect feminist democratic principles.
The list also included $1.5 million for art projects promoting the inclusion of people with disabilities and $2 million for sex changes and LGBT activism in Guatemala. $10 million worth of USAID-funded meals, allegedly ended up in the hands of an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group, the document states.
Other USAID programmes include $25 million for Deloitte to promote green transportation in Georgia, $6 million for tourism development in Egypt, and $2.5 million to foster inclusion in Vietnam. The documents also pointed to $5 million awarded to EcoHealth Alliance, a group linked to bat virus research at the Wuhan lab, and $20 million for an organisation tied to what Musk described as a “key player” in the Russiagate impeachment inquiry.
Further funds were allocated for various LGBT-related initiatives worldwide, including $5.5 million for LGBT activism in Uganda, $6.3 million for men who have sex with men in South Africa, $3.9 million for LGBT causes in the western Balkans, and $6 million for advancing LGBT issues globally. Additionally, $2 million was allocated to promote LGBT equality through entrepreneurship in Latin America, while $1.5 million was designated for LGBT advocacy in Jamaica.
The data also highlighted spending closer to home, with $1.2 million going to help the African Methodist Episcopal Church Service and Development Agency in Washington, D.C., build a 440-seat auditorium. A further $1.3 million was provided to Arab and Jewish photographers, while $1.1 million supported an Armenian LGBT group.
Musk criticised other expenditures as well, including $3.9 million for artisanal gold mining in the Amazon and $500,000 aimed at solving sectarian violence in Israel just days before the October 7 Hamas attack.
Attention was also drawn to USAID’s $150 billion “whole-of-agency” climate strategy, which outlines efforts to build an “equitable world” while pursuing net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
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