Sri Lankan Tea faces the bitterness of losing foreign market due to Ditwah damage
By Pranavesh Sivakumar
Colombo, Feb. 9 (Daily Mirror) - Due to the damage caused by cyclone Ditwah, Sri Lanka’s world-famous tea stands the risk of losing foreign markets and other countries resorting to other suppliers, Colombo's Tea Traders Association's Chairman, Lushantha De Silva said.
The country’s tea industry lost one million kilograms of production due to the destruction and that raised questions whether we could cope up to the world’s demand.
“That will happen (losing foreign markets to an extent),” said De Silva.
“In the past if you look at maybe 15-20 years, we were the biggest exporters to Pakistan, Egypt, and the UK. But today we lost those countries, but we are still exporting 265 million kilos,” he said.
“We will lose some, we will gain some,” he added.
The island nation exports to over 140 countries, with Russia, Iraq and the UAE, only to name a few, being major importers.
The former has remained a consistent market and the latter, being a top buyer.
In 2024, the country exported 245.7million kgs and in 2025, up by 11.65million kgs to 257.44 million kgs.
De Silva also admitted that it is a challenge that new markets are up and coming.
“Other new markets are opening. New things are coming up. It’s a challenge. Right now, more or less China is a big market for us which is improving largely, so those markets if they really open out, China as we know is 1.4 billion people. So, if we get a 5% stake in that market, that will be huge,” he explained.
