He said the tea industry consists of three broad sectors with distinct functions and interests: the buyers or exporters, the sellers or producers, and the brokers who are also the producer's agents.

"These stakeholders should all work in harmony for the greater benefit of the industry, but they do not!" Akbarally, the outgoing chairman of the CTTA, told its annual general meeting Friday.

"Instead, they pursue their parochial agendas, seeking short-term advantages over their counterpart stakeholders."

This, Akbarally said, has placed the industry in poor light in the eyes of politicians and state officials, who constantly urge the tea industry to follow the example of another leading industry, apparel, which recently emerged but has grown very fast.

They attribute the apparel industry's success to all stakeholders speaking in one voice and being able to secure concessions and other benefits, which are denied to the tea industry, which indulges in one-upmanship and squabbling over trivial matters, Akbarally said.

"This must stop! We must yield our personal agendas to those of the industry at large, if we wish to move forward."

Working in unison can yield huge benefits for the tea industry which crossed the billion-dollar barrier in export earnings in 2007.

Production costs shot up over 25 percent in 2007 and now the industry has to contend with even greater costs, given increasing oil prices and spiralling inflation, not only in production but in every other link of the supply chain.

"The question is whether even the lucrative prices that Ceylon tea is commanding globally will be enough to absorb costs," Akbarally said.

"There is no doubt in my mind that unless future wage increases in the plantations sector are linked to productivity, the industry will plunge into self-destruction."

The tea industry says labour expenses now account for as much as 65 percent of the average production cost.

This was after two wage hikes within just one year which the government forced on plantations companies after coming under pressure from politically-powerful estate labour unions which staged a crippling strike in 2006.