Master tea maker Herman Gunaratne, one of 46 experts picked by Rajapaksa to guide the organic revolution, fears the worst. He says the country’s Ceylon tea has some of the lowest chemical content of any tea and poses no threat. Organic tea costs 10 times more to produce and the market is limited, Gurunada added. He said Sri Lanka’s food security had been “compromised” and that without foreign currency it is “worsening day by day”. Tea plantation owners say that on top of the loss of earnings, a crop failure would cause huge unemployment as tea leaves are still picked by hand.

Source: The Nation September 01, 2021 04:18 UTC