Better Business Insights
Dr. Roshan Rajadurai, the Managing Director of Hayleys’ Plantations, left, discusses with Tea Biz correspondent and PMD Tea MD Dananjaya Silva how organizational discipline and adaptations enabled tea production to continue during the pandemic and recent economic hardships.
Newly appointed Sri Lanka Tea Board Chair Niraj de Mel is rallying tea stakeholders – growers, manufacturers, producers, brokers, and exporters – in the face of formidable challenges.
Co-founder Jane Pettigrew describes the remarkable evolution of the UK Tea Academy into an innovative global tea education resource that has emerged from the chaos of COVID-19.
Rising temperatures threaten tea yields and force growers to consider planting “upslope” at higher elevations where cooler temperatures prevail. Unfortunately, subtropical tea cultivars perish in a hard frost, expected above 7,500 feet. At Ukraine’s Zhornyna tea farm Maksym Malygin is successfully growing plants under forest cover that have survived heavy snow during prolonged winters at temperatures 26 below zero Celsius.
In 2021, Sri Lanka launched a ₹4.5 billion global promotion to increase the export volume and value of Ceylon tea, a billion dollar brand. The campaign targets 12 markets, including the UK, EU, Asia, and North America. In parallel, the board is pursuing a Protected Geographical Indication by the European Union.