This is the story of Merrill J. Fernando, founder and owner of Dilmah Tea, Sri Lanka’s best-known and most successful tea brand. Merrill passed away in July 2023 at the age of 93, and people working in the tea industry around the world knew we had lost an extraordinary man. Merrill had devoted his life to tea and to the people of Sri Lanka—not just those who worked for and with him, but for the wider community for whom the beautiful island is home.
When asked about his love of tea, his vision for Dilmah Tea, and his determination—right up to the end of his life—to improve the lives of his employees and others struggling to make ends meet elsewhere in Sri Lanka, Merrill always said, “I am an ordinary farmer learning to market our tea crop without middlemen so I can retain in my country the earnings which are taken away by traders, leaving us poor.… I have made it my duty to extend a helping hand to others and the community. If we
