Sri Lanka will call for expressions of interest internationally to hire advertising and media firms to handle a 10 million dollars a year Ceylon tea promotion campaign, a s
enior Tea Board official said.The global marketing campaign to promote Ceylon tea will be launched next year with funds from a new levy of 3.50 rupees a kilo on exports that came into effect in November.
The island exports about 300 million kilos of tea, its main export commodity, a year and the new levy will raise about a billion rupees or 10 million US dollars annually.
"We're going to float an international tender to identify professional advertising, marketing or media organisations who will have to do the promotion campaign," Tea Board director - promotions Hasitha De Alwis told LBO in an interview.
The industry has to decide whether to hire one agency for the entire global campaign or separate firms for different regional markets.
The main markets for Ceylon tea are Russia and other Commonwealth of Independent States, and the Middle East.
Other important but smaller markets are the Far East, Europe and North America.
"That step (hiring an advertising agency) we hope to do very fast," De Alwis said.
"Probably we'll float the tender by the end of this month or the latest by early December."
The Tea Board will police the use of the funds raised from the new promotion levy but how the money will be used will be decided by a committee dominated by exporters and other private sector tea industry interests.
De Alwis said that already, advertising agencies have been sounded out about the Ceylon tea promotion campaign.
"We told them there will be a global tender and they will have to apply when the EOI is announced."
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