Venkatesh Iyer
NEW DELHI, Oct 6: The Sri Lanka Tea Board (SLTB) has launched an innovative initiative to market the Ceylon Tea brand by distributing ‘Ceylon Tea dyed’ face-masks on a complimentary basis to the international business community in keeping with the Corona pandemic restrictions.
The ‘Ceylon Tea’ started in 1820 but strangely with ‘Coffee’ then and going on to become the largest producers of coffee in the world by 1869 before an unfortunate coffee-rust plant disease wiped the entire coffee plant. By then the company had experimented into Tea business in the year 1867 by planting the first crop on the island, renowned for its fine quality and distinctive taste. Ceylon Tea has been a perennial favourite with tea lovers around the world.
The speciality of Ceylon Tea branded face masks is that it has undergone a value addition process with the usage of Ceylon Tea dye, a by-product of ice tea manufacturing. The Masks are natural antimicrobial (AATCC 100) bio-degradable, eco-friendly, and non-toxic. The extra benefit of using this innovative face masks is that it is reusable up to 30 washes.
Mr Jayampathi Molligoda, Chairman of Sri Lanka Tea Board (SLTB) symbolically handed over the first batch of Ceylon Tea Branded face masks from the first lot of production to Admiral Prof Jayanath Colombage- Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Relations.
The business of face masks has been booming ever since the coronavirus pandemic making it one among the foremost essential and indispensable commodities of 2020. The Ceylon Tea board through its branded face masks has adopted an innovative way of promoting the brand and is being distributed in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Relations.
The SLTB said arrangements were being, made to dispatch the branded face masks to over 75 Sri Lankan missions around the world to distribute the merchandise to the end-users.