The National Chamber of Exporters of Sri Lanka (NCE) recently saw tea industry veteran Jayantha Karunaratne taking up the role as president of the association.

Elected at the 28th Annual General Meeting, Karunaratne becomes the 13th president of the chamber that is known as the ‘voice of exporters’.

Karunaratne is the Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of the Imperial Teas Group. His over 40 years of experience in the tea trade began in 1977 when he served as a Tea Taster at a leading tea export company in Sri Lanka. 

Extensive travel has given him an in-depth knowledge of overseas markets and trading concepts and methodologies. He is the immediate Past Chairman of the Colombo Tea Traders Association. It is during his tenure as Chairman of CTTA that Karunaratne headed and facilitated the transition from an outcry auction system to an e-auction due to the severe implications caused on the tea industry from the Covid-19 pandemic. He is also a Past President of the Tea Exporters’ Association. 

He was a Board Member of the Sri Lanka Tea Board and a member of the promotion and marketing committee of the SLTB, former President of the Sri Lanka-Russia Business Council (SLRBC). He is also a member of the American Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka. In September 2007, he led a delegation of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce of the Trade & Investment Promotion Mission to Russia and the Ukraine. He was also a member of the Sri Lanka Team that conducted negotiations with Russia regarding the latter’s proposed accession to the World Trade Organization. 

Alongside the election of the new President, elected as the new Vice Presidents of NCE were Kaushal Rajapakse and Dilshan Rajapakse.