By Shabiya Ali Ahlam
Plantations Industries Minister yesterday hinted the ‘Ceylon Tea’ brand would be reconceptualised in the near future, due to a good majority of the younger generation unable to link the name to the island nation.

“The younger generation tea drinkers, they don’t know what Ceylon is and where it is. In that sense the pure Ceylon Tea concept, it is questionable,” Minister of Plantations Industries Navin Dissanayake told Mirror Business during an interview.

He added he was open to any suggestion in this regard and implied it was his ultimate focus to project the brand that promises to offer the finest tea in the world.

Acknowledging the delay in launching the global tea campaign has contributed in the Ceylon Tea brand losing its presence in the global space, Dissanayake expressed confidence in the promotion exercise kicking off by early January.

The Ceylon Tea campaign, for which a CESS of Rs.3.50 is imposed for every kilo exported, failed to take off with the previous management of the Sri Lanka Tea Board delaying to reach a consensus as to what the concept should entail.

Dissanayake, noting the exercise was long overdue, stressed the execution of the marketing plan must be in place.

“We have about US $ 50 million to utilize in promoting Ceylon Tea and it will be done in a transparent manner for the benefit of the tea industry. We have all stakeholders making a representation in the Tea Board who are open to give us inputs on how and where we can have the campaign,” he said, while noting the reach of the campaign is equally important to ensure maximum impact.

Advertising agency Phoenix Ogilvy won the tender having competed with three other top entities, to implement the global Ceylon tea campaign. The minister shared that the marketing plan submitted for the same was asked to be fine-tuned to meet the requirement of the industry.