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Coffee makers stirred into action
From CNN Correspondent Kasra Naji
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- The tea industry, faced with falling prices and strong competition from coffee producers, is being stirred into action to recoup its share of the consumer market. The rise of the coffee craze -- and the proliferation of trendy coffee bars -- has had a big impact on Sri Lanka, the world's largest exporter of tea. After decades of dominance by tea producers, consumers have abandoned the leaf in favour of frothy cappuccinos, milky lattes and dark espressos. "Tea is a lot more old age, old fashioned type of thing like you have in a hotel, while if you are coming out to relax with your friends in a coffee house its more of a new age drink," says one young coffee fan. Losing ground to coffee is not the only problem facing Sri Lanka's tea industry. In many tea-growing areas of the South Asian nation, the cost of producing tea is far above the price it fetches in the market. Globally, a glut of tea has depressed prices -- in some cases, they have fallen to 30-year lows. But many believe the humble cuppa is not dead yet. Industry experts and executives from around the world have been visiting Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo, in an effort to fire up the coffee market. Deciding that drastic action was needed to protect the island's long-standing staple export, they have made moves to balance supply and demand by reducing production of low-quality tea.
"Producers for the first time, so far as I can remember in the history of tea industry, have agreed to restrict production of the poorest teas," says Anil Cook of Sri Lanka's Tea Industry. With the tea industry crisis threatening the livelihood of millions of tea workers globally, Sri Lanka producers have pinned their hopes on the United States. Americans, who once led the revolution in coffee consumption, are now seen as heralding a new attitude towards tea. Quality tea producers are targeting the growing U.S. demand for up-market and single estate teas. They argue that the only way out of the crisis is to make tea more fashionable. "A long-term goal is to get people to think of tea as they do wine," says Joseph P. Simrany, president of the Tea Association of the U.S.A. If that happens, shopping malls in the U.S. may soon have specialized "tea cafes" which -- like the aptly named 'T Bar' in Colombo -- will offer distinct high-quality teas to discriminating consumers.
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