P B Jayasundera, the top finance ministry bureaucrat, ruled out government's blessings for blending calls, saying "Sri Lanka should not permit our product to be used in that manner".
Jayasundera said the government believed the country held a comparative advantage in tea and wanted to use it to the fullest.
"One product we should uncompromisingly preserve and protect is Sri Lankan tea. We believe Sri Lanka has a tremendous comparative advantage in tea and can make it a three billion dollar industry in the next 10 years," Jayasundera said, addressing a tea industry gathering today.
The tea industry association comprising exporters had urged the government to allow imports of tea for blending for re-exporting.
The exporters argue that high production cost of Ceylon tea has prevented local exporters from competing with international brands.
The association contends that only 12 per cent of tea exports are under Sri Lanka's own brands while the rest is exported under foreign brands or in bulk raw form.
In 2011, tea export earnings recorded the all-time high figure of USD 1.49 billion, government figures showed.