Sri Lankan tea pickers’ dreams shattered as nation faces economic crisis

 The Covid-19 pandemic severed the tourism lifeline of the Indian Ocean nation, already short of revenue in the wake of steep tax cuts by the government.

On a lush plantation in Sri Lanka, Arulappan Ideijody deftly plucks the tips of each tea bush, throwing them over her shoulder into an open basket on her back. After a month of picking more than 18 kg (40 lb) of such tea leaves each day, she and her husband, fellow picker Michael Colin, 48, receive about 30,000 rupees, worth about $80 after the island nation devalued its currency.

“It is not close to enough money,” Arulappan, 42, said of their earnings, which must support the couple’s three children and her elderly mother-in-law. “Where we used to eat two vegetables, now we can only afford one.” She is one of millions of Sri Lankans reeling from the island’s worst Sri lanka economic crisis in decades.

The Covid-19 pandemic severed the tourism lifeline of the Indian Ocean nation, already short of revenue in the wake of steep tax cuts by the government. Left critically short of foreign currency to buy essential supplies of food, fuel and medicines, Sri Lanka has turned to the International Monetary Fund for an emergency bailout.

Sri Lanka crisis worsens: Petrol price skyrockets, 2 die in queue

 Suspends operations at its only fuel refinery after crude oil stocks run out

Sri Lankan police said on Sunday two men collapsed and died while waiting in separate queues to secure fuel amid sky-rocketing prices leading to record inflation. For weeks people have been queuing up at pumps, often for hours, and the country has been under rolling power cuts. On Sunday Sri Lanka suspended operations at its only fuel refinery after crude oil stocks ran out, said Ashoka Ranwala the president of the Petroleum General Employee’s Union. The energy ministry could not be immediately reached for a comment.

Use of kerosene oil has increased after low-income families began shifting away from cooking gas due to price increases. On Sunday Laugfs Gas, the country’s second largest supplier raised prices by 1,359 rupees ($4.94) for a 12.5 kg cylinder, the company said in a statement. Sri Lanka has been struggling to find dollars to pay for increasingly expensive fuel shipments since January, with its foreign currency reserves dipping to $2.31 billion in February.