Ozone Friendly Tea

All tea growing in Sri Lanka is now considered as 100% ozone-friendly. This is a distinction of which no other tea-producing nation can boast. Plans are now being drawn up to impose a total ban on methyl bromide fumigation in applications such as export packaging and shipping.

As of May 2011, all Ceylon Tea is entitled to bear the new ‘Ozone Friendly Pure Ceylon Tea’ logo, certifying that it has been produced without the use of any ozone-depleting substances, mainly chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) including Methyl bromide.

Alarmed by warnings from scientists, the world’s nations met in Montreal, Canada in 1987 to decide upon action to protect the ozone layer. Out of this meeting came the Montreal Protocol, signed by 191 countries including Sri Lanka. Under the protocol, the use of methyl bromide by the Sri Lankan tea industry was progressively done away with. As a result of such prompt and effective action by the industry and others, Sri Lanka was acclaimed a ‘leader in ozone-layer protection’, receiving the Montreal Protocol Implementers Award in 2007.