CLP's Chairman and Managing Director Chathura Laknath said they have already secured an order from the leading British supermarket chain, TESCO to market this tea from next month.
He said that the recipe for the product ‘Change Coriander Tea’ was developed together with medico doctor, Thushan Ariyapala (current CEO), four years ago and they did several researches in the past three years before introducing this product. The total investment to launch this product was around Rs. 100 million “We import coriander from Romania and refine it in Sri Lanka and then blend it with high grown BOP tea at our factory in Colombo.”
“We hope this will be a ground breaking launch which will increase the demand for Sri Lankan tea in the world market.”
He said that they when coriander is mixed with exclusive tea, the results are unbelievable and unique. It’s more than just a beverage; it’s a package of inherently healthy ingredients for the body and mind. We believe this creates a major international demand since there is a trend for healthy drinks globally.”
“We have several other buyers from the UK and our next target market will be Russia, France, Canada, Australia, China and the Gulf.”
“We are targeting a sale of four million kilograms of ‘Change Coriander Tea’ in the first six month of our international sales.” He said that they had held several sampling sessions to both local and foreign buyers and due to requests by locals they have decided to introduce this product to Sri Lanka from end of the month to Sri Lanka as well.
“Though the product is priced around 45% more than normal tea we are confident that we could get around 1% market share in the first six months.”
The health benefits of Coriander Tea seem endless and main among its healing properties, it is known to balance blood sugar, restricting and reducing fat or flaccidness, removing pimples and host of other benefits, too numerous to mention.
Explaining the company’s future plans he said that they are now looking at acquiring an up country tea estate with a factory so that they can eliminate the auction when purchasing tea.
He said research is under way to introduce two other food products which too will be ‘world’s firsts’.
(Daily News)
