Sri Lanka, June 19 -- The centuries-old standard that defines premium Ceylon Tea is at risk of becoming "a fiction" as climate extremes disrupt growing conditions across Sri Lanka's tea lands, Dilmah Tea Chairman and Chief Executive Dilhan Fernando warned.

Cautioning that declining quality could eventually translate into lower national output, Fernando pointed out the industry is already facing the consequences of increasingly erratic weather patterns, with prolonged droughts and intense rainfall threatening the delicate environmental conditions that give Ceylon Tea its distinctive character.

"Today, we talk about, and in the past we have talked about, two leaves and a bud," Fernando said, referring to the internationally recognised be...