COLOMBO — Sri Lanka’s tea exports will earn 1.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, state media citing a top government regulator reported here.

Jayampathy Molligoda, chairman of the Sri Lanka Tea Board (SLTB) which is the tea industry’s top regulatory and administrative body, said that tea exports had surpassed 1.2 billion U.S. dollars by the end of November and would surpass 1.3 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2021.

Molligoda was quoted in state-owned Daily News as saying that the tea industry sustains 500,000 smallholders, 135,000 estate workers, around 20 regional plantation companies, 590 tea factories as well as 280 tea exporters in Sri Lanka.

Speaking at the anniversary of the introduction of an e-auction system to the Colombo Tea Auction, Molligoda said that the digital system has helped the stabilization of prices.

According to the Ministry of Finance, Sri Lanka earned 1.2 billion U.S. dollars from tea exports in 2020, amounting to 12 percent of total export revenue.