Celebrating 200 years of coffee: Sri Lanka Coffee Festival returns to highlands for fourth edition

THE Department of Export Agriculture (DEA), in collaboration with Australia’s Market Development Facility (MDF), and the Lanka Coffee Association (LCA), successfully hosted the fourth-annual Sri Lanka Coffee Festival on 8 and 9 July in Kandy.

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The event celebrated 200 years of coffee in Sri Lanka with the DEA launching an official commemorative stamp. The event also announced an MoU between the DEA and Australia’s MDF to develop a ‘roadmap’ to further develop Sri Lanka’s emerging specialty coffee sector.

Sri Lanka’s coffee industry is making a comeback, with increasing production and demand, and this year’s Sri Lanka Coffee Festival was a testament to this transformation. Held for the fourth-consecutive year, the festival celebrated 200 years of Sri Lanka’s rich coffee-growing heritage. The festival was attended by coffee farmers, roasters, retailers, coffee enthusiasts and other key stakeholders.

This year’s festival marked a new chapter in public-private collaboration, as the DEA merged its annual Coffee Day celebrations with the LCA-MDF flagship event, the LCA Sri Lanka Coffee Festival.

Agriculture Department Director General Dr. Thushara Wickramarachchi, Central Province Governor Prof. Sarath Abeykoon, and several other State stakeholders were Guests of Honour at the festival, and reflected growing Government interest in the sector’s revival.