Sri Lanka's tea exports will earn 1.3 billion US dollars in 2021, state media citing a top government regulator reported on Monday.
The tea exports had surpassed $1.2 billion by the end of November and would surpass $1.3 billion by the end of 2021, said Jayampathy Molligoda, chairman of the Sri Lanka Tea Board.
Molligoda was quoted in state-owned Daily News as saying that the tea industry sustains 500,000 smallholders, 135,000 estate workers, around 20 regional plantation companies, 590 tea factories as well as 280 tea exporters in Sri Lanka, reports Xinhua.
Speaking on the anniversary of the introduction of an e-auction system to the Colombo Tea Auction, Molligoda said that the digital system has helped the stabilization of prices.
According to the Ministry of Finance, Sri Lanka earned $1.2 billion from tea exports in 2020, amounting to 12 per cent of total export revenue.