Manik Jayakumar was a storied rugby captain in his youth,a retired lieutenant colonel, regiment commander and a decorated combat veteranin his middle years; and he had managed several award-winning tea estates andhelped pioneer organic tea farming in Sri Lanka by the time he was 50.
As it turns out, he was just getting started.
In 1994 in the sitting room of his brother’s house in LosAngeles he launched a small trading company that is now one of the largestsuppliers of organic tea and herbs in North America.
QTrade Teas & Herbs is celebrating its 25thAnniversary this year. The company operates a modern 70,000 square-footblending facility in Cerritos, Calif. Equipped with giant v-blenders androbotic packaging lines, the plant has the highest level of food safetycertifications and supplies several of the world’s largest beverage brands andfood service chains with both hot and iced teas.
Manickarajah “Manik” Jayakumar, 75, recipient ofthe 2019 John Harney Lifetime Achievement Award, began his 55-year careerin tea as an assistant superintendent at Brunswick Estate, Maskeliya under thewatchful eye of David Perkins, a second-generation British planter versed incolonial tradition.
An Unlikely Career in Tea
Jayakumar was not born into a tea family, but quicklyadvanced from his days as a “creeper” tailing and tending to Perkins’ work andpersonal needs 24/7. The experience was pivotal as his work with WhittallBoustead introduced him to the challenges of managing a work force of 2,000 onsoil exhausted from the cultivation of tea. “I began to see how managers lookedafter people and the soil in which tea was grown,” recalled Jayakumar. “Perkinsspoke the native language. He was firm, not mean. He demanded excellence.” Jayakumarwas appointed assistant manager in 1964. Eventually he would earn the FIPM(Fellow of the Plantation Management) degree, the highest awarded by SriLanka’s Institute of Plantation Management. Perkins, now in his 90s, recallsJayakumar as someone special in his life and they continue to correspond tothis day.
Manik attended Royal College in Colombo, one of the morefamous boy’s preparatory schools in Sri Lanka. The school was founded by theRev. Joseph Marsh in 1835. Jayakumar, one of six sons of a well-respectedphysician, was a prefect there with a fine academic record but never attendedcollege. He is best remembered as captain of the school’s very successful rugbyteam. He calls rugby “a rowdy game played by gentlemen,” an athletic pursuitthat he continued through his 30s. He was a member of the Dickoya Club andlater played for Dimbulla, a group of semi-professionals in the plantationleagues so well regarded they played many international professional rugbysquads visiting Sri Lanka, including the world-champion All Blacks (NewZealand) as well as the London Welsh.
During his school years he was named sergeant of thesenior cadet platoon, earned the best cadet officer baton and the Hermon Loostrophy for all-round efficiency, a foretelling of another successful pursuit.
In the 1960s growing tea for Lipton, a company that earnedits reputation promoting Ceylon, was good work, but his first job was adisappointment to his mother, he recalls. She preferred he become a doctor – aprofession in which his younger brother later excelled.
Awakening to Organics
Jayakumar advanced with Whittall as the superintendent atlarge plantations in the Dimbulla, Nuwara Eliya, and Uva districts, known forproducing the most valuable teas at auction. In 1970 he married Queenie andthey had two children, their daughter, Thashika, was born in 1973 and Manjiv in1977.
Sri Lanka declared its independence in 1948 but tearemained under the influence of large multinational corporations for decades.In 1972 Sri Lanka nationalized the tea industry and the government beganoperating plantations. In 1985 Jayakumar was assigned the giant, 3,000-acrePoonagala Tea Estate by the State Plantation Corporation. It was about thattime he began to question agricultural practices focused solely on increasingyield. He also expressed increasing concern about the treatment of workers.
During his years as a plantation manager he frequentlyinteracted with the Tea Research Institute of Sri Lanka, eventually becoming amember of the working committee tasked with exploring organic cultivation. Hebecame a consultant in a partnership with Stassen Tea, a private venture thatpartnered with GEPA, a German NGO to establish the first organic tea garden. Herecalls that growers at the time “were using 150 pounds of fertilizer toharvest 100 pounds of leaves.” Mono-cultivation had stripped the soil andwildlife was scarce due to excessive use of pesticides. Under his guidancebarren estates bloomed again a few years after adopting organic practices. In2004 he published a scholarly report “Pesticide Issues in Tea” presented at theWorld Green Tea Forum (OCHA) in Shizuoka, Japan.
Jeopardy and Flight
Jayakumar joined the army reserves in 1966, a time ofpeace. “I liked the outdoors and the action. The reserves would step in duringnational emergencies such as floods to assist the armed forces,” he recalled.In time the unit began functioning more as a unit of the regular army.
During Sri Lanka’s civil war, an insurrection that cost asmany as 100,000 lives, Jayakumar led the 3rd Battalion Sinha Regiment. He wasnamed coordinating officer of the Nuwara Eliya District, a central tea growingarea, by the country’s president in 1988. It was during this time that heserved the tea industry and the military concurrently. This period wasespecially tragic for both sectors, during an insurgency 17 tea plantationmanagers were killed including two of Manik’s superintendents, and in themilitary several of his staff officers were killed, one of whom died in hisarms.
Fearing for the lives of his wife and children, heresigned his position as cluster director in charge of six estates andfactories in the Poongala Valley and left the country in late 1989. He foundwork the next year in Indonesia as general manager of a plantation group wherehe stayed until moving to the United States in 1993. He moved in with one ofhis brothers and initially worked in a skilled nursing facility.
“When the owner of the facility sold it, he offered me a$10,000 loan to start my own company,” said Jayakumar. He began trading walnutsand importing products from Brazil, but soon felt the call to tea.
“I wanted to name the company qualitea, Q-U-A-L-I-T-E-A,”recalled Jayakumar. “We tried to register that, and it was already taken sothen we tried many other names. Eventually, we tried QTrade. It was my wife’ssuggestion. We tried it and it worked,” he said, naming the company after her.“We have been married 49 years. I owe so much to her,” he said.
QTrade Teas & Herbs
“We did not specialize only in Sri Lanka tea or Indiantea; we engaged the whole world. That's one of the reasons for our success. Wehave product knowledge of all teas, whether it's oolong tea or Matcha tea,” saidJayakumar.
QTrade has been awarded the largest number of Global TeaChampionship trophies, more than 100, with winning teas in every category, hesaid. This is because the company is willing to experiment, to innovate withunusual inclusions such as chocolates and spices.
“We were bold to experiment. We took on challenges. Somefailed, it did not always go well, but we helped revolutionize the specialtycategory in North America. Historically, the Germans dominated the world forblends and herbal teas. However, it was a standardized product, same size, sameeverything,” he said.
An example of his curiosity and passion was his work withUSAID funded projects to revitalize industries related to tea. Manik spenttime in Bolivia, Russia, and Armenia over the years working on theseprojects. “One project was in Armenia where we were trying to developpomegranate tea. It was very interesting. I didn't know too much aboutpomegranate but fortunately pomegranate is grown extensively in California, soI went and learned,” he said.
“That is when I discovered that pomegranate has a verybeautiful and tasty flower and when the flower drops to the ground nobody usesit. It could be a beautiful purple, reddish flower. So, I told them to dry theflower to reduce the moisture and preserve the pink color. They brought me adryer and I did some experiments in the hotel I was staying. That’s all theyneeded.”
Locating in the U.S. where labor costs are high was unusual.
“[Clients] used to think they had to get everything donein developing countries. It's cheaper, that's a fact. But now we are findingthat for speed, flexibility, and market knowledge it is best to have the workdone in the U.S.,” he said.
The company initially delivered a lot of small one-poundorders but now competes for the largest clients. The facility is staffed with125 workers and has state-of-the-art equipment.
His son, Manjiv graduated from Harvard and worked in NewYork at Goldman Sachs on Wall Street but, like his father, he later chose a lifein tea. He now operates the company as chief executive officer.
A Student of Tea
Jayakumar is both student and teacher.
“I'm amazed at what I have personally learned about whatis going on in the world and how we are connected. One of the best parts of the industry is thatthere is always more to learn and discover,” he said.
He currently co-chairs the Global Tea Initiative projectat the University of California, Davis, where he is actively encouragingacademic and industry collaboration, including with international universities.
Tea Philanthropy
“QTrade has always been actively involved in socialdevelopment in the plantations where we buy teas and herbs,” Manik said. Thecompany played a pioneering role in encouraging tea brands and growers toembrace the Fair Trade movement.
QTrade still represents and sells teas from the firstorganic estate that Manik helped start in the 1980s. “We continue our relationship with theworkers and have done a lot of social development work at this estate - takingcare of the handicapped and assisting in running an elder’s home. Recently weprovided solar panels giving very welcome hot water to the pensioners. In Marchthis year we renovated a creche (child-care facility) there,” he said.
In Assam, for example, partnering with clients and localagencies enabled repairs to a school for children, which is also used for adulteducation after hours.
Philanthropy is inseparable from a business that is based on relationships, says Jayakumar.