Middle East moving away from Ceylon Tea
According to the founder of Dilmah Tea, Middle East markets are moving away from Sri Lankan tea and prefer heavily promoted and cheaper international brand names. Mr Fernando, who turned Sri Lanka's tea industry upside down from a traditional bulk tea exporter to a growing value-added seller, is concerned about weak marketing efforts of the countrys traditional export. He argues that Sri Lanka should not follow market leaders with blended tea and CTC manufactured tea, but to re-launch traditional grades of Pure Ceylon tea and market them strongly. Exports to Saudi Arabia, a prolific consumer of Ceylon tea previously, have declined from 11.4 million kilos in the year 2000 to 4.7 million kilos in 2009.