Saman Vidyarathna

Saman Vidyarathna is a Sri Lankan politician and the current Minister of Plantation Industries. He has been vocal about the challenges facing the tea industry in Sri Lanka, highlighting the closure of numerous tea factories due to various issues. In a recent address to Parliament, he revealed that 213 tea factories have closed since 1986, attributing these closures to management failures and insufficient production capacity. Vidyarathna has expressed hope that some of these closed factories could be reopened in the future, as the government seeks to intervene and revitalize the struggling tea sector.