They also said another reason for the limited amount of export to India may be because Sri Lankan tea prices are higher than in India.
India is essentially a CTC (cut, tea and curl type teas used in tea bags) market while Sri Lanka is an orthodox tea market, the newspaper said.
Sri Lanka last year exported 1.2 billion worth of orthodox tea and is looking to increase earnings to 1.5 billion dollars this year.
India™s total tea exports last year were worth 500 million dollars by comparison.
However, India is one of the world's top two tea producers and most of her production is consumed by the domestic market, leaving very little available for export.
Banerjee also said India would end the year with an orthodox production of 90 million kg, up 7-8 million kg from last year.