Sri Lanka targets Russia with specialty teas

Dec 19, 2011 (LBO) - A specialty tea contest held in Russia recently would help Sri Lankan exporters promote Ceylon teas in the biggest market for the island's main agricultural export, officials said.

Hasitha De Alwis, director promotion of the Sri Lanka Tea Board, said the 'Ceylon Speciality Estate Tea of the Year Contest'was held for the first time in Moscow after being held thrice in the United States and once in Japan.

"Russia is the biggest market for Sri Lanka despite tariff barriers for value added teas," he told the awards ceremony.

About 17 percent of Sri Lankan tea exports go to Russia.

"We decided that the all-important Russian market should be where we should go with the competition," De Alwis said.

"The main aim of the contest was to popularise and encourage the concept of marketing straight-line garden marks and promote the diversity of specialty Ceylon teas from Sri Lanka to foreign markets.

"This would enable overseas tea connoisseurs to experience seasonal quality teas which are unblended and limited in nature."

The tea industry aims to create fresh enthusiasm for the beverage in new generation of tea drinkers.

De Alwis said there were 495 entries from estates under seven agro-climatic regions where tea is grown in the island as well as in the green tea and CTC (cut, tear and curl type for tea bags) categories.

Blind tasting' of the teas was done by a panel of 12 tea tasters with 66 entries being sent to Russia for the final in the contest organized with the help of Russia's Rusteacoffee organisaton.

Anselm Perera, a top tea exporter and one of the tea tasters on the panel, said over 600 samples from tea estates had been tasted.

Plantations industries minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said a lot of the money raised by an export levy for tea promotion would be used in the Russian market.

Registration of Ceylon teas under international intellectual property law would also be used for promotion, he told the awards ceremony.

"When we talk about the Russian market we're talking about an increasingly sophisticated market. Russia has a per capita income of nearly 16,000 US dollars and a middle class of almost 75 million people."

source- http://www.lankabusinessonline.com