Indian tea conquering Pakistani cups (With Photo)

Kolkata, Mar 18 (UNI) More and more people in Pakistan are falling for the taste of Indian tea thanks to the aggressive marketing by the Indian Tea Board.

As a result of nearly two-year long efforts, India started exporting tea to Pakistan since 2005, the volume of which grew from a mere two million kgs to 16 million kgs last year and "we are now targetting to reach the 30 milliomn kg mark by the end of this year (2007)", said Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industries Jairam Ramesh here today.

Speaking to newsmen after a chairing a marathon meeting with senior Tea Board officials here on various issues, Dr Ramesh said though the people in Pakistan consumed anout 180 millon kgs of tea every year, other tea producing countries like Kenya, Sri Lanka and Uganda were the most beneficiaries by supplying the entire quantity.

But following the improvement in bilateral relations in every sector, including trade and industry, Indian Tea Board, lost no time and started supplying Indian CTC and Orthodox tea in small quantity to Pakistani traders which soon became immensly popular becausoe of their high quality and competitve prices, Dr Ramesh said and hailed the efforts of the Tea Board in popularising Indian tea to Pakistan to a great extent.

He said last year Tea Board Chairman Basudeb Banerjee visited Islamabad and Karachi and ensured that more Indian tea could be exported to Pakistan.

"We are convinced that this year we would be able to export at least 30 million kgs of India tea to Pakistan before reaching the projected 50 million kg marks by next year," he said.

UNI