COLOMBO: As Sri Lanka prepares to celebrate 150 years of the tea industry in the country in 2017, the accent will be quality rather than quantity, and earning more from less in the international market, Minister for Plantation Industries, Navin Dissanayake announced on Wednesday.

The Sri Lanka Tea Board, in collaboration with the Colombo Tea Traders’ Association, is organising a number of celebratory events throughout the year 2017, commencing 19th January 2017 to mark the introduction and existence of tea in Sri Lanka.

Tea is the fourth largest foreign exchange earner for Sri Lanka, bringing in $1.5 billion per annum and is one of the largest employers serving two million people directly or indirectly.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2016