Sri Lankan authorities to increase government subsidy for replanting tea bushes
Sri Lanka Tea Board is reportedly looking at doubling a government subsidy given for replanting tea bushes as part of the efforts to increase production of black tea.
Black tea is one of Sri Lanka’s main agricultural exports.
“We propose to increase the subsidy, which is half a million rupees a hectare now, to one million rupees a hectare and to give whatever other incentives for tea farmers to increase replanting and infilling of vacancies,” Tea Board chairman Lucille Wijewardena has been quoted as saying in the local media.
The money, to be given to both corporate regional plantations companies and small farmers, is aimed at encouraging them to replant aging tea bushes and also fill in vacant plots on estates where plants had died or had been pulled out.
Wijewardena has said that negotiations are being carried out with the Treasury to get more funds to increase the replanting subsidy in the near future.
“You need 10,000-13,000 plants per hectare. But now we have got only 5,000 plants per hectare.
Over the years plants die for various reasons.
“It is all about funding. Capital cost is too high, about two and a half million rupees per hectare. Also, the tea prices are good, so they (farmers) don’t want to take the bush out,” he has further noted.
OSL take:
The statement by the Chairman of Sri Lanka Tea Board on the support extended by the authorities to uplift the country’s tea industry indicates the opening of business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka’s tea plantation sector. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka tea exports are also recording a gradual yet steady growth in the foreign market.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/04062019/Z_1 |