Sri Lanka is promoting the manufacture of specialty teas by its industry, with a competition of specialty teas in Japan. Such promotional competitions would give recognition to producers and help them to obtain top prices for their products.

Furthermore, such competitions would also encourage estates to make specialty teas which are sought after by discerning buyers and fetch higher prices than regular blends sold by food multinationals.

The industry wants to make use of the variety of teas available from different agro-climatic regions of the island which enable producers to offer different tastes and flavours.

The recent competition, organized with the support of the Japan Tea Association was keenly contested and teas produced were auctioned for high prices.

"The Ceylon Specialty Estates Teas of the Year competition was launched with the objective of promoting specialty tea in international markets," said Hasitha De Alwis, director promotions of the Sri Lanka Tea Board.

It also recognizes and rewards Sri Lankan tea factories "for excellence in manufacturing" and encourages them to continuously manufacture and market top quality single origin unblended teas.

The main aim of scheduling the competition in Japan was to take advantage of the tremendous popularity of the tea houses concept in that country, he added.

He said there was good potential to market single origin estate teas directly to the end-consumers.

De Alwis said the competition received 400 entries of which 40 short-listed were sent to Japan for evaluation.

The 380 kilos sent yielded 3.55 million yen in proceeds at a subsequent auction of 4.6 million rupees, an average of 15,105 rupees a kilo, with the money used for charitable projects like the welfare of tea plucker families.