India's tea exports have gone down- Desai

Ahmedabad, June 11 (UNI) India's tea exports had gone down gradually to 158 million kgs during 2007, from 180 million kgs during 2000-04, according to Western Tea Dealers' Association Chairman Piyush Desai.

''It is a matter of great concern that our tea exports have lost against Sri Lanka, Kenya and some other countries,'' Mr Desai said.

Mr Desai, also the Chairman and Managing Director of Wagh Bakri Tea Group told reporters here today that the company has brought superior quality Darjeeling tea at a price of Rs 3000 per kg, to compete with the German buyer.

He said for the first time his company would be competing with a German buyer and therefore the company has retained specially grown organic Darjeeling tea, which is considered to be about one per cent of the domestic crop.

At present, Wagh Bakri is into D'ling brand. To meet with the challenges from export competitors, Desai said the group would soon install an imported Tea Bag machine, purchased at a cost of Rs five crore from Italy, which will have the capacity to produce 250 tea bags per minute and be able to make tea bags of bigger size, he said.

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