Main articles: Economy of Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka
Tea production in Sri Lanka , formerly Ceylon, is of high importance to the Sri Lankan economy and the world market. The country is the world's fourth largest producer of tea and the industry is one of the country's main sources of foreign exchange and a significant source of income for laborers, with tea accounting for 15% of the GDP, generating roughly $700 million annually. Sri Lanka was the world's leading exporter of tea (rather than producer) with 23% of the total world export in 1995 but has since been surpassed by Kenya. The tea sector employs, directly or indirectly over 1 million people in Sri Lanka, and in 1995 directly employed 215,338 on tea plantations and estates. The central highlands of the country, low temperature climate throughout the year, annual rainfall and the level of humidity are more favorable geographical factors for production in high quality tea. The industry was introduced to the country in 1867 by James Taylor, the British planter who arrived in 1852.
History
Pre-Tea era
Cinnamon was the first crop to receive government sponsorship in Ceylon, while the island was under Dutch control. During the administration of Dutch governor Iman Willem Falck, cinnamon plantations were planted in Colombo, Maradana, and Cinnamon Gardens in 1769. The first British governor Frederick North prohibited private cinnamon plantations, thereby securing monopoly of the cinnamon plantation for the East India Company. However, an economic slump in the 1830s in England and elsewhere in Europe affected the cinnamon plantations in Ceylon. This resulted in them being decommissioned by William Colebrooke in 1833. Finding cinnamon unprofitable, the British turned to coffee.
By 1825 the Ceylonese already had a knowledge of coffee. They started planting coffee as a garden crop and the first coffee plantation was started in Baddegama in Galle District. Although this venture failed due unsuitability of area to the crop, George Bird became first to start planting coffee on a commercial scale. After Bird begun his coffee plantation in Singhapitiya, Gampola governor Edward Barnes also started a plantation in Gannoruwa. The demand and high price in European market for coffee fueled the rush of coffee planting. Investors flocked to Ceylon from overseas and around 100,000 ha of rain forest was cleared to pave the way for coffee plantations. The term, "Coffee rush", was coined to describe this developing situation in 1840.In 1869 the coffee industry was still thriving in Ceylon but shortly afterwards, coffee plantations were devastated by a fungal disease called Hemileia vastatrix or coffee rust, better known as "coffee leaf disease" or ‘coffee blight’. The planters nicknamed the disease "devastating Emily" when it was first identified in the Madolsima area in 1869. Production dipped rapidly as the disease set in and every effort failed to revive the coffee. Of 1700 coffee planters only 400 remained in the island as the rest left for their home countries. The coffee crop died and marked an end of an era when most of the plantations on the island were dedicated towards producing coffee beans. Cocoa and Cinchona were experimented as alternative crops but failed due to a bug, Heloplice antonie . In the 1870s virtually all the remaining coffee planters in Ceylon had switched to the production and cultivation of tea because of the devastating Hemileia vastatrix fungus.By the year 1900, only 11,392 acres were still under coffee cultivation.
Foundation of tea plantations
In 1824 a tea plant was brought to Ceylon by the British from China and was planted in the Royal Botanical Gardens in Peradeniya for non-commercial purposes. Further experimental with tea plants brought from Assam and Calcutta in India were brought to Peradeniya in 1839 through the East India Company and over the years that followed. In 1839 the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce was also established followed by the Planters' Association of Ceylon in 1854. In 1867, James Taylor marked the birth of the tea industry in Ceylon by starting a tea plantation in Loolecondera estate Kandy in 1867. He began the tea plantation an estate of just 19 acres (77,000 m 2 ). In 1872 he started a fully equipped tea factory in the same Loolecondera estate and that year the first sale of Loolecondra tea was made in Kandy. In 1873, the first shipment of Ceylon tea, a consignment of some 23 lbs, arrived in London. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle remarked on the establishment of the tea plantations, “…the tea fields of Ceylon are as true a monument to courage as is the lion at Waterloo”.
Soon enough plantations surrounding Loolecondera such as Hope, Rookwood and Mooloya situated to the east and Le Vallon and Stellenberg to the south began transforming into tea plantations and were amongst the first tea estates to be established on the island.
The total population in Sri Lanka according to the census of 1871 was 2,584,780. The 1871 demographic distribution and population in the plantation areas is given below:
Growth and history of commercial production
Tea production in Ceylon increased dramatically in the 1880s and by 1888 the area under cultivation had exceeded that of coffee, growing to nearly 400,000 acres in 1899.British figures such as Henry Randolph Trafford arrived in Ceylon and bought coffee estates in places such as Poyston, near Kandy in 1880, which was the centre of the coffee culture of Ceylon at the time. However, he knew little about coffee but had considerable knowledge in regards to tea cultivation and he is considered one of the pioneer tea planters in Ceylon. By 1883, Trafford was the resident manager of numerous estates in the area, now switching to tea production. By the late 1880s almost all the coffee plantations in Ceylon had been converted to tea, following the example, with coffee stores rapidly converted to tea factories to meet the increasing demand for tea. Technology developed in the 1880s with the manufacture of the first "Sirocco" tea drier by Samuel C. Davidson in 1877 and the manufacture of first tea rolling machine by John Walker & Co in 1880 set the conditions that would be required to make commercial tea production a reality.This was consolidated in 1884 with the construction of the Central Tea Factory on Fairy land Estate (Pedro) in Nuwara Eliya. As tea production in Ceylon progressed, new factories were constructed introducing innovative methods of mechanization brought in from England. Marshals of Gainsborough of Lancashire, the Tangyes Machine Company of Birmingham, and Davidsons of Belfast supplied the new tea factories with machinery which they still supply today.
Tea steadily began being sold at auction as it increased in popularity. The first public Colombo Auction was held at the premises of Somerville & Co.on 30th July, 1883, under the auspices of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. One million tea packets were sold at the Chicago World Fair in 1893. That same year the tea established 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 conducted through this association and the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. In 1896 the Colombo Brokers' Association was formed and in 1915 Thomas Amarasuriya, became the first Ceylonese to be appointed as Chairman of the Planters' Association. In 1925 the Tea Research Institute was established in Ceylon to conduct research into maximising yields and methods of production. By 1927 tea production in the country exceeded 100,000 metric tons, almost entirely for export. 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 in 1940 it developed an immunity to the threatening Tea Tortrix Caterpillar to protect the crops. In 1941 the first Ceylonese tea broking house, M/s Pieris & Abeywardena was established and in 1944 the Ceylon Estate Employers' Federation was founded. On October 1st, 1951, export duty on tea was introduced and in 1955 the first clonal tea fields began cultivation. In 1958 the State Plantations Corporation was established and on June 1st, 1959, Ad Valorem Tax was introduced for teas sold at the Colombo auctions.
By the 1960s the total tea production and exports exceeded 200,000 metric tons and 200,000 hectares and by 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 year
tea
The familiar black tea, which emerges from the dryer is passed through a series of screens and meshes and graded into various sizes. The graded tea is then packed into paper ...
Mlesna Teas - Glossary / Tea Manufacturing Glossary
Tea Manufacturing ... or grades through different size meshes. Tasting - the sixth stage of manufacture where all the grades of tea are ...
Mesh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This tea strainer is made of metal mesh ... Wire screens on windows and mosquito netting can be considered as types of meshes.
eteaket Limited Green Tea
Rich Sencha green tea is carefully blended with roasted brown rice. The fresh grassy flavour of the green Sencha meshes beautifully with the aroma of the rice to give a toasty ...
China Monofilament Polyester Printing Mesh, Monofilament Printing ...
Woven Screen Meshes can not only be directly used as an element to filter, but also ... cartridges, wet filter bags, special fabricated filter elements, special-made mesh tea ...
We offer tea seed powder, tea seed cake, tea seed meal, camellia cake ...
Depending on market demand, we also supply 80-120 meshes of Micro tea seed powder.
Mod The Sims - Japanese-Inspired Kitchen Set "Sushi": 13 new meshes
Want to order The Sims 3: World Adventures Expansion Pack and help the site out? ... the particular mesh itself in order for this to show up in your game. See the Meshes Needed ...
Monofilament Polyester Printing Mesh, Nylon micro-rated mesh ...
Polyester mesh, both monofilament and multifilament low-elongation printing meshes, is ... cartridges, wet filter bags, special fabricated filter elements, special-made mesh tea ...
The Cooking Inn : Tea Terminology S Page
Scented Tea : Green semi-fermented or black teas that have been flavoured by the ... by sifting the different leaf size particles or grades through different size meshes.
Schools - Keystage 2 - Food - Tea production
Tea factory After plucking the tea is taken to the factory to be processed. Sifting tea Tea is sifted through different sized meshes. This process removes any stalks and sorts the ...