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Sri Lanka Agriculture
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PLANTATIONS TEA
Tea, Rubber and Coconut are the three main Plantation crops of economic importance in Sri Lanka. Significant extents of Tea and Rubber are in large units as commercial plantations and owned and managed by Public Plantation Companies. There is however, a very significant extent in the form of small holdings, some of which is less than a third of a hectare in extent, managed mainly with family or village labour. Productivity of these small holdings, particularly Tea, is very high. Tea The total extent of land under Tea is 180,000 hectares of which about 104,300 hectares is managed by the organised Corporate sector and State sector, the balance 76,500 hectares consist of small holdings. There are twenty large corporate bodies managing the plantations whilst the number of small holdings is approximately 200,000. In the year 2002 Sri Lanka's total production was a record 310 million kilograms at an average Yield Per Hectare (YPH) of 1649 kgs.Tea exports accounted for 21.5% of the island's net foreign exchange earnings. Tea is Sri Lanka's single largest net foreign exchange earner. The bulk of the Tea produced is sold at the weekly Auctions (Colombo is the world's largest Tea Auction centre.) and the average Auction price for all teas sold in the year 2002 was equivalent to US$ 1.53 per kilogram which was he highest average for all the Auction centers in the world. Sri Lanka exported 291.7 million kilograms (including a small quantity of re-exports) at a total value of US$ 646.6 million which was an average export price of US$ 2.21 per kilogram. Sri Lanka is the world's largest largest exporter of Tea and Russia is the worlds largest importer of Tea. India and Sri Lanka supply 74% of Russia's requirement and in the year 2002 Sri Lanka was the largest supplier to Russia. |
