Lumbini tea factory is a 75-acre tea estate at 450metre above sea level. It is about 200km from Colombo in a village called Pallegama in Deniyaya which is in Matara district if the southern province of Sri Lanka. It is classed as being in the Ruhuna agro-climatic region.
The factory and estate are owned by Mr Dayapala Jayawardane, and can turn up to 12,000kilos of green leaf into tea every single day. The factory manufactures orthodox black and white teas, producing about 600 tonnes in total per year. The production methods followed are clearly defined ie receiving green leaf, withering, rolling, fermenting, drying, grading, cleaning, quality-checking, then packing.
Mr Jayawardane regularly invests in his factory and recent purchases include a very modern colour sorting machine and a new drying machine. The factory employs 80 people and 30 tea-pickers are also employed full-time. The reason for the factory and estate being called Lumbini is because the owner, workers, and pickers are Buddhists and Lumbini was the birth-place of Lord Buddha.
Lumbini Jayachakra is a Gold award winning tea of the Specialty Tea Competition held in Japan 2010, which acknowledged the product as the best invention at the awards. This specialty tea was innovated by the Lumbini team and it is produced exclusively in limited quantities. The whole two leaves and bud of the tea leave is used to form the tea which resembles the shape of a ring; Jayachakra, and is available as both black and green tea.
The Lumbini Tea Estate is multi-award winning. A small selection of these awards are as follows:
- Southern Province Best Entrepreneur in 2003
- Three Star Award from SriLanka Tea Board in 2008
- National Plantation Award (The Best Tea Factory-Southern Province) 2012
- Gold Award from National Chamber of Exporters award ceremony for both 2012 and 2013
- Finally Lumbini Tea won all three Gold, Silver and Bronze awards from the Ruhuna Region in the Ceylon Specialty Tea Competition held in Dubai 2015
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