Kotagala Plantations PLC is a well-diversified company with all major crops Tea, Rubber and Oil Palm under the Lankem Tea & Rubber Plantations banner. The tea-bearing sector of Kotagala Plantations utilises 2,451 hectares for harvesting the bulk of its tea from the Western high-grown Dambulla district and a lesser extent from the low grown Kalutara area.
Despite a slightly weaker national tea crop than the preceding year at 328.3 Million kilos, Kotagala performed better than budget in both low and high-growns with a 5,466,960 kilo haul performing at a very satisfactory 2,230 kg per hectare. An additional 1.5 Million kilos of tea was manufactured as smallholder bought leaf. The region did extremely well to harvest the highest ever crop of 5.1Mn. kilos of made tea, achieving the peak yield for the region at 2,268 kilos per hectare. Nine out of the ten estates recorded yields of over 2,000 kilos per hectare.
Deployment of innovative management strategies such as shear plucking has vastly improved the quality of the green leaf sent for manufacture.
Meanwhile, the demand for Fairtrade teas continues to rise patronising all three marks of Kelliewatte, Bogahawatte and Chrystler’s Farm. These marks have been accepted by Fairtrade USA as well.
