Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera, Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries has instructed all the sectors related to the tea industry today (06) to take steps to make the B-60 policy which is implemented to ensure the quality of tea produced in Sri Lanka, compulsory from January 01.
The B-60 policy means that at least 60 percent of the leaves used to produce tea must be of high quality.
This morning, the Minister has discussed the next steps to be taken to ensure the quality of Sri Lankan tea with the representatives of all the sectors belonging to the tea industry. In this discussion, he discussed with all sectors including Tea Development Authority, Tea Small Holdings Development Authority, Tea Research Institute, Tea Suppliers Association and Tea Manufacturers Association.
The Sri Lanka tea brand was a brand that took the world by storm a few decades ago, and due to the activities of some businessmen, the brand of Sri Lanka tea faced a serious crisis.
Therefore, project B-60 was initiated to ensure the high quality of tea leaves to restore the high recognition of Sri Lankan tea in the international market.
Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera, Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries has mentioned that as this project has not yet been implemented, in order to establish the market for the tea industry in Sri Lanka in the future, this project should be implemented immediately.
Accordingly, all parties involved in the tea industry have agreed today (06) to make the B-60 project compulsory from January 01 to ensure the quality of tea leaves supplied to tea factories.
Commenting on this, the Minister has said that in order to rebuild the tea industry in this country, the quality of tea must be improved. The Minister also mentioned that this B-60 project is being implemented by preventing the mixing of matured tea leaves in addition to tea leaves.
The Minister has also instructed the Ceylon Tea Board to take steps to revoke the license of any factory that violates this decision.
The Secretary of the Ministry, Janaka Dharmakeerthi, Tea Small Holdings Development Authority, Ceylon Tea Board and Tea Development Authority officials also participated in this discussion.