Sri Lanka sets ambitious export goal
Sri Lanka, one of the world's most prolific tea producers, vowed to drastically increase tea exports. Tea Exporters' Association of Sri Lanka presented proposals to ramp up annual exports from current $1.5 billion to $3-$5 billion in the next few years. The tea sector would become one of the major contributors to government's plans to reach $20bn in exports by 2020. The island nation seeks to regain lost markets and attract new ones by establishing itself as "the tea nation". It plans to invest heavily in marketing, especially in strategies to promote added value crops in large markets like Russia and China. Tea currently accounts for 15% of Sri Lanka's total export earnings.