Merrill J. Fernando

Deshamanya Merrill Joseph Fernando (6 May 1930 – 20 July 2023) was a Sri Lankan businessman who was the founder and chairman of the Ceylon tea company Dilmah. He was known for promoting single-origin tea in the international market, and for conducting his business using the principles of social responsibility.

Early life and education

Merrill Joseph Fernando was born into a Catholic family 6 May 1930 in the village of Pallansena, near Kochchikade, in Negombo, British Ceylon, a village north of Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. After beginning at the Pallansena village school, then St Mary's in Negombo,

He also studied for four years to be a priest, at the St. Aloysius seminary in Borella, but was eventually rejected by the brothers there as a candidate. While there, he noticed that tea was being mixed and blended but still marketed as pure Ceylon tea. The tea was bought cheaply, with branding and packaging taking place in Europe and the UK, returning small profits to Sri Lankan tea producers while middlemen (wholesalers and resellers, mainly a few large corporations) reaped the lion's share of the profits.

Career

Fernando started his career in tea when he was just 20 years old as a tea assistant with A. F. Jones and Company, a tea exporting company run by Arthur Frederick Jones and his sons Dennis and Alan Jones, where he was appointed managing director in 1954. In 1956, when a change in government looked to seize control of some foreign-owned estates, the Jones family left the country, and Fernando acquired their estates After the nationalisation of the plantations in 1971–72, Fernando stepped down to start MJF Exports, and within a few years most Australian retailers sourced their house brands from MJF. As of 2016, Dilmah tea was sold in over 100 countries.

Charitable works

In 2007, Fernando founded Dilmah Conservation, "to incorporate environmental and wildlife conservation efforts into the work of the MJF Foundation, which primarily focuses on social justice". One of its main aims was to protect Sri Lankan forests.

In November 2019, Fernando was awarded an honorary doctorate (Doctor of Science) by Massey University in New Zealand, "in recognition of his leadership in ethical business within the food and beverage industry". He had had an association with the university since the late 1990s, when he worked with Distinguished Professor Paul Moughan at the Riddet Institute.

Upon his death, Hiru News described Fernando as "a legend in the industry".

In popular culture

Fernando became known in New Zealand and Australia for his TV ads in which he urged viewers to "do try it".

Footnotes