History of tea war on China was one of Britain's tactics, it also began to explore, then executed, a plan to use India for growing tea. After tea plants were smuggled out of China, plantations were established in areas such as Darjeeling, Assam, and Ceylon. As an attempt to circumvent its dependence on Chinese tea, the East India Company sent Scottish botanist Robert Fortune to China to purchase and bring out of China tea plants, which were then taken to India, although it was the discovery of native varieties of tea plant in India which proved more important for the development of production
Tea production in Sri Lanka ( million lbs) in 2000. World tea production in 2001 rose 3.7% to 3.022 million tonnes ( million short tons), but in Sri Lanka tea exports rose to an all-time high of $658 million from $595 million the previous year. Currently, however, Sri Lanka, whilst the world's largest exporter of tea, is far behind India and China in terms of total production. In 2003 the government in Sri Lanka sought to protect the country's near $700 million tea industry during the 2003 Iraq War. The war in Iraq caused panic, particularly among small-scale Sri Lankan tea growers who represent 69%