THE WORLD’S FIRST AND ONLY OZONE-FRIENDLY TEA - CEYLON TEA

Tea was introduced to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) on a commercial scale by the British in 1867. Commercial tea planting in Sri Lanka took root due to the collapse of the coffee industry as a result of leaf disease. As a beverage, tea is at least 5000 years old, having first been discovered in China, and then popularized in Europe and its colonies in the 17th century. The Portuguese developed a trade route to ship tea from China to Lisbon, and Dutch ships later transported it to Holland and France. Great Britain was the last of the great sea fairing nations to break into the Chinese and East Indian trade routes. After the treaty of Nanking in 1840 and control of India, tea became an important part of British trade.

Sri Lanka is today the 5th largest manufacturer of tea in the world after China, India, Kenya and Turkey. Since China is predominantly a green-tea producer, while India and Kenya mainly produce CTC teas, Sri Lanka is the world's leading manufacturer of orthodox black tea. Sri Lanka is also the third-largest tea exporter to the world after Kenya and China and India and China, both have vast domestic markets for the tea they produce. With almost 40% of all its exports made in value added form, the tea trade in Sri Lanka is ahead of competitors such as India and Kenya, which ship around 10% and 7% of their tea exports in packaged form. Sri Lanka is the first tea-producing country in the world to introduce nation branding: Ceylon Tea, linked to the Lion-logo symbol.

Sri Lankan tea industry takes great pride in informing the world community at large and the global tea fraternity in particular, that preserving Mother Nature and safeguarding the planet earth has always been given the utmost priority by the stakeholders. Few are aware, that Methyl Bromide is a highly risky substance which depletes the Ozone Layer in the atmosphere. Again, little is known by the general public that Ozone Layer acts as a filter to protect harmful ultra violet rays reaching the earth from the sun and creating chaos. The global warming phenomena are also due to the atmospheric damage of the Ozone Layer. Sincere efforts have been injected towards this aspect and the complete stoppage of using the chemical Methyl Bromide in the nursery stage of tea cultivation is one such initiative by Sri Lanka after signing the UN Montreal Protocol. This code of ethics by the Sri Lanka tea industry to completely move away from the usage of Methyl Bromide enabled Ceylon Tea to be awarded the first and only Ozone Friendly tea to be available in the world in 2007.

In addition, the tea industry in Sri Lanka has created many global records in various fields and avenues. The country could boast of a highly transparent E-Tea Auction system in April 2020, rated as the largest in the world for a single origin, yielding the fastest turn-around of tea to cash for tea growers /farmers. In respect of agro-chemical and pesticide residues, Ceylon Tea has been regularly acclaimed as the cleanest tea by independent analysts and research labs around the world. Further, Sri Lankan Government has banned the chemical fertilizer imports to Sri Lanka in this year and promoting bio fertilizer and other organic matter for tea sector from this year.

Thinking out of the box and, aspiring a quantum leap to transform Ceylon Tea to a branded product from what most other tea origins service as a raw material, is the next goal of an industry which could boast of a tradition exceeding 150 years. Many industries and services the world over, talk about sustainability and CSR program as fashion. However, in the Sri Lankan tea industry such catch phrases are in built and act as an integral part of the daily life of stakeholder members whether it is in the growing, manufacturing, auctioning, packaging & value addition or exporting Ceylon Tea. The environmental sustainability, social well-being and the economic sustainability are all present as mandatory requirements. Thus, Ceylon Tea comes to the discerning consumers after a pain staking exercise, a passionate effort, a grateful care and above all with love and deep sense of admiration from the beautiful island of Sri Lanka.

In such a background, the Sri Lankan tea industry wishes to celebrate the ‘International Ozone Day’ on 16th September and recognizes few vital characters and segmentation to pay tribute for the invaluable service and enormous sacrifices made to raise the popularity and perceived quality parameters of Ceylon Tea.