Ceylon Tea History - Chapter 05

By the 1960s, Sri Lanka's total tea production and exports exceeded 200,000 metric tons per year and in 1965 Sri Lanka became the world's largest tea exporter for the first time. In 1963, the production and exports of Instant Teas was introduced, and in 1966 the first International Tea Convention was held to commemorate 100 years of the tea industry in Sri Lanka. During the 1971–1972 periods, the government of Sri Lanka nationalized estates owned by Sri Lankan and British companies, taking over some 502 privately held tea, rubber and coconut estates, and in 1975 it nationalized the Rupee and Sterling companies. Land reform in Sri Lanka meant that no cultivator was allowed to own more than 50 acres for any purpose. In 1976, the Sri Lanka Tea Board was founded as were such other bodies as the Janatha Estate Development Board (JEDB), Sri Lanka State Plantation Corporation (SLSPC) and the Tea Small Holdings Development Authority (TSHDA) to supervise the estates thus appropriated by the state. Sri Lanka was the official supplier of tea at the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympic Games, in 1982 at the 12th Commonwealth Games in Brisbane and again in 1987 at Expo 88 in Australia. In 1981, the country began importing teas for blending and re-exports and in 1982 commenced the production and export of green tea. In 1983, the CTC teas method was introduced. In 1992–1993 many of the government-owned tea estates which had been nationalized in the early 1970s were privatized. Tea from Ceylon gained the reputation of being the finest in the world, and tea exports became the mainstay of the colonial economy. Housewives and restaurateurs across the globe grew familiar with the name of the country, learning that its appearance on a tin or packet reliably guaranteed the quality of the tea inside. When the country changed its name to Sri Lanka in 1972, its premier industry was faced with a knotty problem. Ceylon was not only the former name of the country; it was also one of the world’s leading brands, familiar to consumers’ world over – a brand the industry had been actively promoting and investing in since the early 1930s. Abandoning it would deliver a setback from which there could be no easy recovery. And the cost of promoting and establishing an unfamiliar new brand – ‘Sri Lanka Tea’ – would be exorbitant. Though opposed by some who demanded a complete break with the colonial past and a new start for the country, industry leaders managed to persuade the socialist government then in power to permit the continued use of the name Ceylon to refer to the country’s most famous product. Tea from Sri Lanka would still be marketed as Ceylon Tea; a priceless world brand had been saved.