COVID-19: IMF lauds Sri Lankan tea industry’s e-auction platform

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lauded the E-auction platform of the Sri Lankan historic tea industry, describing it as innovative, entrepreneurial and creative.

“Innovators around the world are responding to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic with creative digital solutions. 

When the pandemic struck, Sri Lanka averted a disaster by creating an e-auction platform for its historic tea industry,”  said the IMF in a recent report.

Ten percent of the Sri Lankan population is involved in this tea industry and derive an income from the industry, which generated more than $1.2 billion in export revenues in 2020.

For more than 125 years, the tea industry has depended on a tradition-steeped auction where hundreds have convened twice a week at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce to buy and sell Sri Lanka’s finest leaves.

When COVID hit, the world’s oldest tea auction, which had functioned without fail for more than a century, was suddenly unable to bring together buyers and brokers for the weekly bidding. Plantations and factories had nowhere to sell their product, buyers were left in a lurch, and millions were at risk of losing their income.

Sri Lanka’s tea auction faced an urgent need to reinvent itself.

“With brokers and buyers unable to meet in person, the challenge was not just to find an alternative to the live auction, but to get it up and running and yielding good prices—immediately,” says Anil Cooke, CEO of Asia Siyaka Commodities, who led the task force charged with digitalizing the auction.

Not only is the new system COVID-safe, it’s also faster, more strategic, and cost-effective—and even yields higher prices. The online auction has also improved transparency and efficiency and reduced duplication of work.

The pandemic disrupted Sri Lanka’s historic tea industry, as live tea auctions could no longer be held. Technology helped update a 125-year old tradition in a matter of days, saving a vital economic sector. More in our latest issue of #FandD: https://t.co/lW8qGLDJm2 pic.twitter.com/5HEFvnKHya

— IMF (@IMFNews) March 11, 2021

Amaka E. Nliam