Tea To Explore New Markets.

Tea producers want to leverage the Abu Dhabi festival this weekend to boost exports to countries such as Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The industry needs to expand overseas to counter the decline in exports, which fell 12 per cent in April-February to 167 million kg from 189.93 million kg a year ago.

“Our key focus is Pakistan which is the second-largest tea importer in the world. The festival will provide a platform to talk business with the Pakistani importers and packeteers. From less than 1 million kilograms in exports to the country in 2000 we have been able to increase it to 20 million kilograms in 2010,” said Sujit Patra, joint secretary, Indian Tea Association (ITA).

“We have had several delegation exchanges with Pakistan but visa issues have acted as a dampener. The ITA believes that we must increase exports to Pakistan, considering the good vibes received so far in business. Iran, too, is an interest area. We have been organising events abroad and have good relations with traders there,” he said.

Meanwhile, exports to Iran, which had dropped to 2-4 million kilograms some time back, have picked up again in 2010, reaching 16 million kilograms.

Business discussions will centre around nine major markets — Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Kazakhistan and the UAE.

“Syria, which has seen negligible exports from the country so far, has been an interesting development for us. We have seen a lot of interest generating for Indian tea there although Sri Lanka continues to be their major exporter,” Patra added.

Estimated exports to Egypt and Russia in 2010 stood at 12-13 million kgs and 35-40 million kgs, respectively. India exported 5-6 million kgs to Kazakhistan and roughly 5-6 million kgs to Iraq.

Source : telegraphindia.com