India to open tea export centres in Cairo, Teheran

Kolkata, May 21 : The Centre has decided to open two international tea marketing centres in Cairo and Teheran this year in order to re-capture its dwindling global market share in tea, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jairam Ramesh announced here today.

Speaking to newsmen at the end of his two-day visit to the city to discuss the problems facing the Indian tea industry, Mr Ramesh said the best and the good quality Indian tea would be marketed to the Middle East and African countries through these two centres, which would come up later this year under public-private-partnership initiatives.

Referring to the sorry state of affairs of Indian tea export for the past few years primarily because of lack of production of good quality tea, Mr Ramesh said besides increasing the export volume the Tea Board had decided to give special emphasis on sale of Indian tea to Pakistan, Iran and Egypt, the three most tea consuming countries in the world.

It was very unfortuanate that despite enjoying the best of diplomatic relations Pakistan imported only about 10 million kgs of Indian tea against its total demand for 140 million kgs per annum, Mr Ramesh said and pointed out the similar picture in Iran and Egypt too.

Unless some special efforts like the opening of the international tea centres were made, the situation in terms of Indian tea export looked bleak now, Mr Ramesh said.

Mr Ramesh said efforts were being made to remove the trade barriers with neighbouring countries like Pakistan through diplomatic channels.

"We have, however, already taken some positive steps and organised a visit of an Indian tea delegation to Pakistan last month. In return a similar tea delegation of Pakistan is also coming to India in July to explore the possibilities of further import of good quality Indian tea instead of importing them from Sri Lanka or Kenya," Mr Ramesh said.

UNI