THE STORY OF CEYLON TEA

Personal Reflections of 75 years

Ientered the tea industry just a couple of years after Ceylon gained independence from British rule. At that time every aspect of the industry, from the tea bush on the plantation to the markets where our tea was sold, was dominated by British interests. Locals, however well placed, were cogs in a machine owned and run by the British. I was fortunate to have been one amongst the first few locals to be trained in the fine art of tea tasting. The British, as a group, protected their turf jealously and entry by locals was not welcomed by them, at first. However, there were exceptions. For instance, my first mentor, O.P. Rust, then managing director of Darley Butler and Sandy Mathewson of Harrisons, were both very helpful to me. Similarly, at A.F. Jones, in my first job in the tea industry, the Jones family accepted me and rewarded me for my industry.

Soon after joining AFJ I went to London, to Joseph Travers of Mincing Lane, for further training for several months. That was a revelatory and important interlude, as I soon realized how the produce of our workers was enriching society in the West and other wealthy markets. I realized that a wonderful finished product was being treated as a raw material by the multinational companies, who were adding value to it outside our country. It was that exposure which gave rise to my dream of a personally owned tea brand, from Pure Ceylon tea, which would bring its wealth back in to our country.

Although Ceylon gained independence in 1948, the D. S. Senanayake-led UNP government was generally protective of British interests, and the colonial control of every aspect of the industry were sustained with minimal change. Whilst there were more locals moving in to the industry, there was no visible diminishing of British influence, or slackening of British control. In fact, this situation did not change significantly till well in to the nineteen seventies.

TRANSFER FROM COLONIALS TO LOCALS

The advent of the MEP coalition government led by S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike was a watershed moment in our history. Its left-oriented, pro-nationalist policies, and its principle of nationalization of foreign owned enterprises, had a huge impact on all industries. It was very visible in the plantation industry, as the British hold on it started to unravel at that time. My view is that, on the whole, the SWRD regime’s political dogma and policies were unfavourable to privately owned large enterprises, but their clear anti-imperialist stance also enabled locals like me to gain a toehold on the industry.

Its neutralist foreign policy resulted in the establishing of government-to-government relationships with both the Soviet Union and China. Those moves provided new trading opportunities, especially for tea in the case of USSR. I was able to develop strong trading connections with USSR, on behalf of A. F. Jones and those links were of great benefit to me when I launched out on my own, with my “Dilmah” brand.

The mindset created by British influence on the industry was sustained, for many years after the industry reverted entirely to local hands. The local firms in operation, even in the nineteen sixties, outnumbered the long-established firms, but they were dwarfed in terms of export volume, financial strength and international outreach, by the multinational giants like Brooke Bond and Lipton. The British interests operated on the basis of serving their own markets, and were generally averse to change and innovation. For many years, this lack of enterprise was reflected in the attitudes of many of our own traders and exporters, in that they were generally submissive to multinational influence and conservative in their marketing strategies. My view is that our exporters and marketers, despite easy access to a peerless product like Pure Ceylon Tea, are still not enterprising enough in the global marketplace.

When international markets presented our industry with openings, our exporters were either very slow in responding, or decided to simply play safe. In fact, at those times, even our regulatory bodies, like the Ceylon Tea Propaganda Board and subsequently the Ceylon Tea Board, were also not pro-active enough. In the early nineteen eighties there was a great opportunity for Ceylon tea to establish locally owned brands in the Middle Eastern countries. There was a similar opportunity with the Russian market, at the time the Soviet Republic broke up. Unfortunately, we did not respond to either opening, despite my urging our local regulatory bodies, and the government, to assist in establishing Ceylon tea brands in those countries. It is unlikely that those opportunities will come again because those market openings have been seized by our competitors, especially the multinational exporters.

For the first three decades of my career I was a successful bulk trader, but from the very beginning my dream was to one day launch a brand of my own, delivering a product of consistent, authentic quality, at a reasonable price.

Before the giant supermarket chains and the multi-national titans combined to deliver a cheap, massmarket product to the consumer, small and medium-sized brand owners sold products with genuine quality at commensurate prices. That was what I sought to recreate.

I first marketed Dilmah in Russia but it was in Australia, in 1985, that it was formally launched as a valueadded product from Sri Lanka. On the very first launch itself I ran in to counteraction by the big traders in that country, who discounted their products in order to undermine my pricing. But my consumers wrote to the supermarkets, thanking them for having delivered a quality product and my strategy of quality at a fair price paid off.

HOPE FOR SRI LANKA

Our plantation products, with tea leading the way, provided our country with the highest proportion of its foreign earnings for over a century. It has now been overtaken by the garment industry. My firm view is that the plantation industry has still the potential to make a major contribution to the nation, in terms of foreign exchange earnings and employment. Our spices, such as cinnamon and pepper also possess the capacity to contribute equally. What is needed is a national effort, in which all stakeholders, the State, the private interests in the industryfrom plantation to export packagingthe various entities which represent different aspects of the industry, move together. They must set aside parochial interests and differences and unite on a common platform, in order to get the best benefit from our wonderful plantation and agricultural products. The tea, rubber and coconut plantations must move in to diversification and multi-cropping, instead of relying entirely on the main crops. The local exporters must make a concerted effort to develop own brands and add value within the country itself. The State needs to support such initiatives with concessionary financing and other forms of quantifiable encouragement.

Although I have been critical of our colonial masters they have left us a wonderful legacy. It is not without flaws but that is the nature of such legacies the world over. My view is that we have not made the best use of it. At a time when the country is in the middle of the worst crisis since independence, instead of pleading with wealthier countries for help, we need to first help ourselves by getting the best out of the natural resources so easily available to us. The true measure of “Independence” is the ability of a country to stand on its own, to generate its own wealth, instead of constantly seeking loans which are symbols of servitude to more affluent countries.

Merrill Joseph Fernando is the founder and former CEO of the global tea company Dilmah. Fernando was one of the first Sri Lankan tea tasters to be selected to learn about tea in Mincing Lane, London. Having devoted his life to tea, he decided his work would serve humanity and benefit customers, workers, marginalised people in the community and the environment.

The mindset created by British influence on the industry was sustained, for many years after the industry reverted entirely to local hands