Tea production has shown a decline of about 15% due to issues involving tea fertilizer, Minister of Plantation Industries Ramesh Pathirana said.
The Minister said that 2022 is a difficult year for the tea industry in the country.
Due to the problem of tea fertilizer, tea production has decreased by about 15 per cent. This is a big drawback. Although I did not openly criticise the government’s policy decisions, I continued my fight within the government. This is something that needs to be done. So we had a very unfortunate situation, and because of this, the tea industry was badly hit. After having realised the actual issues, urea and ammonia are now available, although the price is a little high.
When we came to power in the year 2019, the planters were paid 85 rupees per kilo of tea. Today, the price of tea leaves has exceeded 250 rupees per kilo everywhere.
For the first time in history, the government-owned Kalubovitiana Tea Company paid a record price of 420 rupees for a kilo of tea leaves. The price of tea leaves has increased by fourfold. The supply of urea to the world market has decreased. The price of urea has increased. A bag of urea costs 40,000 rupees, but we give it at a concessionary price of 20,000 rupees.
“With a subsidy of 25,000 rupees, there is a limit that the government could bear to give urea to tea growers. Tea, rubber and coconut products are getting the highest prices ever given to exporters in history. It was possible to get an export income of 3.8 billion rupees from tea, rubber, coconut, and cinnamon. The minister said
