Chairman's Statement

Camellia PLC
29 June 2000


The following Statement was made by the Chairman of Camellia Plc at the
Company's Annual General Meeting held today.

Climatically the year has started quite favourably for our tea estates        
everywhere, except for those in Kenya.  The rainfall pattern in North India
and Bangladesh has been conducive to growth and at mid-June, production on our
tea estates was comfortably ahead of last year.  In Malawi the drought
experienced at the end of 1999 continued through January, but since then
rainfall has been reasonable, and production is ahead of last year at this
time. In Kenya, however, our tea production has been very hard hit by last
January's unprecedented frost, followed by a drought which has still not
properly broken

Tea market price levels since the turn of the year have remained
disappointingly low, especially in Bangladesh, and a significant improvement
will be needed if increasing production costs are to be offset.  In price
terms coffee is also going through a very difficult period, although this
year's coffee crop at Kakuzi is promising.  Our citrus and wine grape
subsidiary in Australia is not expected to be able to repeat its exceptionally
good results of 1999, and recent torrential rainfall may cause problems for
our grape and citrus property in Chile. 

In the UK, Duncan Lawrie Ltd is continuing to do well, as indeed is Lumley
Cazalet Ltd.  Linton Park's engineering activities continue to experience the
knock-on effect of the strong pound and a shortage of orders from offshore
oil-related activities, but the food, storage and distribution businesses are
performing marginally ahead of last year at this time.  Our Swiss associate,
Siegfried AG, is also progressing well.

The prospects for the current year as a whole will be clearer when the interim
results are announced in September.  Compared with a year ago, the general
outlook is at present quite encouraging, but this is subject to weather and
there being no further significant downturn in the prices of our principal
agricultural and horticultural products.
                                                                             

P.E. Hill
Company Secretary
29th June 2000