In 2023, lanka expects tea production of 300 million kg

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka expects tea production to recover in 2023 to 300 million kilograms after output fell to 260 million kilograms in 2022 with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa banning fertilizer and agro-chemicals.

“With the current conditions and the crop lost due to fertilizer issue and everything we expect around 260 million kilograms of tea by the end of 2022 which will bring the total revenue through tea selling to around 1.4 billion US dollars,” Chairman of Sri Lanka’s Platers’ Association Senaka Alawattegama said.

“In 2023, we expect a total production of 300 million kilograms, with the fertilizer now being available again with other agro chemicals”.Fertilizer is now coming back to tea farms but at a sharply higher price, he said.

President Gotabaya Rajapaska banned fertilizer and agrochemicals on the advice of the Government Medical Officers Association and a Buddhist monk.

Then GMOA chief Anuruddha Padeniya had said to Pliny the Elder, a Roman author who had produced an encyclopedia about 2000 years ago, ancient Sri Lankans had lived for around 140 years and their life expectancy had now almost halved to 74 years due to agrochemicals.