Cotecna Inspection S.A., Geneva, Switzerland, the world leader in quality control launched its new Cotecna Lanka office recently with the patronage of an esteemed gathering of the leading business community in Colombo.
The immediate priority of this launch will be to invest in a fully equipped laboratory which would be of immense service to many exporters and importers. The proposed ISO-accredited laboratory will be able to do testing of tea, food and water samples under qualified chemists.
Speaking at the event, Cotecna Commercial Division CEO Serge Depellans said, “Sri Lanka is an attractive destination to start investments. An increase in GDP from 7 percent-8 percent shows that this country has achieved is very rare compared to Western Europe. Sri Lanka has a lot of potential when looking at its economy and Cotecna had to be a part of it. Our aim is to facilitate trade in tea, rubber and spices.”
The guest speaker for the evening, Ahmad Teas, Senior Consultant Iyne said, “Approximately 342 million kilos of tea are produced in Sri Lanka. Turkey has become the number one importer of tea to Sri Lanka followed by Russia and Iran. There is a crisis in Russia due to issues such as inflation and sanctions which is affecting our prices. On the supply side, we suffer from droughts and torrential rains and in addition to that, there is a shortage of labour, high cost of fertilizers and lack of expertise in manufacturing and processing tea. When speaking of the demand side, Sri Lanka is the largest producer of low-grown orthodox tea. Despite all these we also need to start speaking more of the health benefits.”
The new Cotecna Lanka office will be managed by its Country Manager, Ravinath Pillai, who has more than 25 years of experience in the trade along with an efficient team of professionals.Cotecna offers its professional and independent service in pre/post cargo inspection, testing and certification to exporters, importers, government and nongovernmental agencies with over 40 years of experience in helping clients trade safely and securely worldwide.
