At the Seminar “Enhancing the Premium Quality of Ceylon Tea” under the JICA verification survey

Mr. Anuradha Wijekoon, Secretary to the State Ministry of Tea industries Development,
Mr. Jayampathy Molligoda, Chairman, Sri Lanka Tea Board,
Dr. L. S. K. Hettiarachchi, Director, Tea Research Institute,
Mr. Yasuo Edamura, Chairman of the Kawasaki Kiko Co. Ltd,
Mr. Yosuke Kawasaki, President, Kawasaki Kiko Co., Ltd,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen. 


  Good Afternoon, First of all, I would like to congratulate the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Export Agriculture, Sri Lanka Tea Board, Tea Research Institute, Kawasaki Kiko Co. Ltd on the successful convening of this seminar titled “Enhancing the Premium Quality of Ceylon Tea” today. My sincere appreciation also goes to Dr. GOTO Tadashi, Shizuoka-Prefecture Research Institute of Agriculture and Forestry, Professor NAKAMURA Yoriyuki, University of Shizuoka, and JICA Sri Lanka for their support and contribution to this survey, which aims to strengthen the competitiveness of the Sri Lankan tea industry through the utilization of a tea ingredient analyzer produced by Kawasaki Kiko Co. Ltd. I am grateful indeed for the privilege to speak a few words at this timely event.

  Traditionally, Sri Lanka is known for its “Ceylon Tea”, and its tea has been attracting tea lovers all over the world. The country is the fourth producer of tea in the world as well as the second largest global exporter, and consequently the “Ceylon Tea” has become one of the main income sources for Sri Lanka. At present, nevertheless, only a small proportion of total tea exports from the country are assessed for quality assurance due to the long analytical procedures. As a result, there is a risk of negotiating unfavorable prices without any means of obtaining a quality certification, and this issue needs to be solved for promotion of fair trade.

  We believe that Kawasaki Kiko’s Green Tea ingredients analyzer could be introduced to the Sri Lankan black tea market in order to improve the efficiency in the current analyzing process. Kawasaki Kiko is based in the Shizuoka Prefecture which is famous for the production and cultivation of Green Tea in Japan, and is a leading manufacturer specialized in the production of machines to pluck, steam, scatter-dry, package and analyze tea for more than 100 years. As for the analysis of tea, it has been done exclusively in laboratories and required a lot of time. But Kawasaki Kiko’s Green Tea ingredients analyzer requires no expert knowledge for use and is able to complete its analysis in just less than one minute. It’s also portable and can be performed in various places along tea value chain, including tea trading sites. I am sure that Kawasaki Kiko’s analyzer will help Sri Lanka strengthen the brand power of “Ceylon Tea”.

  I would like to highlight that the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) extends its assistance not only to sovereign states like Sri Lanka, but also to the Japanese private sector, so as to disseminate the Japanese technologies to developing countries. Under such assistance scheme, the Kawasaki Kiko completed the project formulation survey in 2016 and has been currently carrying out the verification survey to introduce their ingredients analyzer to the Sri Lankan tea market.

  I hope this seminar will pave the way for future tangible cooperation and initiatives between our two countries to further improve the quality of globally renowned premium Ceylon Tea.

  Thank you.