The Sri Lanka Tea Board has issued a clarification regarding the geographical indication protection process for Ceylon Tea, stating that significant progress has been made despite earlier reports suggesting otherwise.
The Sri Lanka Tea Board has responded to recent media coverage, clarifying the current status of efforts to secure geographical indication (GI) protection for Ceylon Tea. According to the Board, an application for GI protection has already been submitted to the European Union and is at its final stage of evaluation, contrary to the impression created by earlier reporting.
The Tea Board emphasized that considerable work has been undertaken over several years to advance the GI initiative. The organization has actively collaborated with the National Intellectual Property Office and other stakeholders to develop the domestic legal framework necessary for implementing a GI system within Sri Lanka. Additionally, Ceylon Tea is already protected as a Certification Mark under Class 30 of the Intellectual Property Act.
A key point of clarification concerns the timing of the domestic application submission. The Tea Board explained that the domestic GI application was deliberately planned to be filed only after the completion of the EU registration process, following advice from the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development, which provides technical expertise to the EU registration effort. This sequencing strategy mirrors the approach previously used for registering Ceylon Cinnamon. The National Intellectual Property Office Director, who sits on the EU GI project steering committee, is fully informed of this implementation schedule.
The Tea Board stressed the importance of understanding the full context of the initiative, noting that the earlier reporting may have inadvertently created misunderstandings about the progress achieved through joint efforts among multiple government and industry stakeholders. The Board reaffirmed its commitment to completing both the international and domestic GI registration processes in coordination with relevant partners.
