FROM THE DRAGON COURT TO THE LAND OF THE LION Tea Travels from China to Ceylon I want people to treasure tea. The worlds best is grown here in Ceylon, now called Sri Lanka. We are not using it to help our country. We are using it only to illuminate others. But that is not what I am after. Tea must illuminate our country and the lives of our people. Merrill J Fernando
established systems in the 19th and early 20th centuries which kept the industry tightly in British hands, which brought enormous wealth to many Victorian Britons, and which still permeate the industry in India and Ceylon today. Until the 1950s, the local people of Ceylon had little chance of attaining any position of importance or power in the industry. Tasters, brokers and managing agents were almost all British. Even after Ceylon won its independence from Britain in 1948, the trade did not visibly alter. But now, after 50 years of refusing to accept unfair or unreasonable rules and regulations, of standing up for equality, of always following his principles, and of planning for the future, Merrill has proved that things
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can change. He has proved that the old systems are not necessarily the understand the significance of Merrill Fernando’s achievements
best, that Sri Lankan-owned companies can survive and grow where
and of Dilmah Tea’s success as an international tea company, it is
companies elsewhere have failed. More important than anything, he has
crucial to place Ceylon tea in its historical context. We need to recognise
proved that a company can achieve phenomenal financial success and
that for hundreds of years, China held the monopoly in tea production,
still trade ethically for the good of both employers and employees. Today,
that the English East India Company maintained a stranglehold monopoly
Merrill is Chairman of a group of companies worth millions of dollars that
on the trading of that tea to Britain, that the British planters and traders
grow, process, bulking, pack, broker and market tea, as well as having
A Cup of Kindness
The Story of Dilmah Tea
