Ceylon Tea History - Chapter 04

The Planters Association of Ceylon was established in 1854 and in 1915 Thomas Amarasuriya became the first Ceylonese to be appointed as Chairman of the Planters' Association. Tea was increasingly sold at auction as its popularity grew. The first public Colombo Auction was held on the premises of M/s Somerville and Company Limited on 30 July 1883, under the auspices of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. One million tea packets were sold at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. That same year the tea netted a record price of £36.15 per lb at the London Tea Auctions. In 1894 the Ceylon Tea Traders Association was formed and today virtually all tea produced in Sri Lanka is sold at the auction supervised by this association and the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. In 1896 the Colombo Brokers' Association was formed. In 1925 the Tea Research Institute was established in Ceylon to conduct research into maximizing yields and methods of production. By 1927 tea production in the country exceeded 100,000 metric tons. A 1934 law prohibited the export of poor quality tea. The Ceylon Tea Propaganda Board was formed in 1932. In 1938 the Tea Research Institute commenced work on vegetative propagation at St. Coombs Estate in Talawakele, and by 1940 it had developed a biological control (a parasitic wasp, Macrosentus homonae) to suppress the Tea Tortrix caterpillar, which had threatened the tea crop. In 1941 the first Ceylonese tea broking house, M/s Pieris & Abeywardena, was established. On October 1, 1951, an export duty on tea was introduced and in 1955 the first clonal tea fields began cultivation. On June 1, 1959, Ad Valorem Tax was introduced for teas sold at the Colombo auctions.