The Tea Exporters Association (TEA) held its 27th Annual General Meeting (AGM) at Taj Samudra Hotel, bringing together industry stakeholders, government officials and business leaders under the theme “Navigating Challenges.”
The AGM confirmed the reappointment of Huzefa Akbarally as Chairman of the TEA for 2026/2027.
Delivering his address, Chairman Akbarally described the past year as particularly challenging for Sri Lanka’s tea industry, citing global conflicts and geopolitical tensions, Cyclone Ditwa, the abolition of SVAT, declining tea production and concerns surrounding quality.
He noted that approximately 85 percent of Ceylon Tea shipping routes had been disrupted, with many vessels being forced to reroute around the Cape of Good Hope. The disruptions have resulted in freight rates increasing several-fold in many cases. Despite these challenges, Akbarally said Ceylon Tea exports had demonstrated resilience and expressed hope that a return to more stable global conditions could create an opportunity to increase exports by another 100 million kilograms.
Turning to production, Akbarally highlighted the capacity already available across Sri Lanka’s tea industry and the need to increase the supply of green leaves to make better use of that capacity.
“We have the expertise. We have the tea exporting companies that have production capacity. We have factories that have production capacity for more leaves. All we need is additional green leaves to drive us forward,” he said.
Akbarally noted that each smallholder family could potentially earn around Rs. 94,000 per month through increased production, representing approximately a fourfold increase in income. He said the industry could realistically reach 350 million kilograms by 2030 with appropriate government support, while highlighting block infilling as a relatively low-cost approach to improving productivity and incomes among smallholders.
He also renewed calls for the restoration of the Tea Board brand promotion scheme, the value-added export incentive and the ability to import spices required for value-added tea production.
Delivering the keynote address, Nishan De Mel, Founder and Executive Director of Verité Research, said Sri Lanka remained in a relatively strong position in terms of its exposure and buffers against the economic shocks of 2026.
“Tourism fell only 1.8 percent, and remittances increased 21.4 percent up to the end of July compared to 2025. The increased cost we pay for oil will turn out to be almost exactly offset by the increase in remittances. If the crisis had not happened, we would be doing a lot better. But having happened, we are not doing much worse,” he said.
Reflecting on Sri Lanka’s recovery following the 2022 debt crisis, De Mel noted that the country had performed strongly on macro-fiscal indicators monitored by the International Monetary Fund, but had experienced weaker outcomes in socio-economic areas affecting the population.
“Sri Lanka did really well on the macro-fiscal indicators, on the numbers that the IMF cares about, but rather poorly on socio-economic indicators, on the things that people care about. We more than doubled poverty in our country, and only Belize did worse than Sri Lanka on employment,” he said.
Addressing the Rs. 200 wage increase in the estate sector, De Mel described the adjustment as a sensible measure that could help address some of the inequalities associated with Sri Lanka’s economic recovery.
“We see this additional 200 as rather sensible. It addresses some of the regressive nature of Sri Lanka’s recovery, where we neglected the poor. It gives estate workers the same value increase as the industry received through exports, adjusts for the consumer price index, and does something to reduce the very high levels of poverty in the estate sector,” he said.
He also called on mature industries to advance their proposals through transparent and evidence-based policy frameworks that the public can understand and support, rather than relying primarily on access or influence.
As the apex body representing Sri Lanka’s tea exporting community, the TEA continues to advocate for policies aimed at strengthening the competitiveness of Ceylon Tea in international markets. Despite a year marked by geopolitical uncertainty, shipping disruptions and natural disasters, the industry has demonstrated resilience.
With appropriate support for smallholder farmers, stronger quality standards and continued market diversification, the Sri Lankan tea industry remains positioned to navigate current challenges while pursuing new opportunities for growth.
The TEA also held its seventh Outstanding Tea Producers Award Ceremony, recognising leading estates and factories across the Ruhuna, Sabaragamuwa, Kandy, Dimbula, Uva and Nuwara Eliya regions, as well as the Low Grown CTC category.
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