Daily Times – Lahore, Pakistan
By Romail Kenneth
KARACHI: The Indian tea sector is eager to increase it’s exports to Pakistan. Importers are eyeing Indian tea as an alternative to Kenya’s tea, traders said. Pakistan had imported 14.75 million kg of tea from India in 2006 and 10.99 million kg in 2005.
To promote Indian tea imports in Pakistan in April, a 12-member team including the Tea Board Chairman, Basudeb Banerjee, representatives of the India Tea Association, a Tea Board official from Dubai, and industry executives representing plantations, traders and exporters visited Pakistan.
The purpose of that visit is to promote export of tea. The delegation met Pakistan Tea Association (PTA) officials and major tea importers and visited Lahore, Peshawar and Rawalpindi.
The team also held discussions with Pakistani buyers about promotion of Indian tea in the local market, including the possibility of a joint promotion with a packaging house here. The team met few buyers from in Islamabad and Rawalpindi buyers appeared optimistic on the prospects of tea trade between Pakistan and India. The Pakistani buyers and Indian exporters felt a land route via Amritsar could be a significant boost to the trade.
Pakistan, which has a 170 million kg tea market, imports about 100 million kg annually. Tea imports from Kenya make up about 85 percent of the total import and India is in the second place. Smugglers bring in another 60 to 70 million kg. The import statistics for the month of April 2007 shows that 1.69 million kg tea is imported from India. Following his visit to Pakistan Indian Tea Board Chairman, Basudeb Banerjee is very much confident and said Pakistan is an emerging market for Indian tea and we expect to export up to 20 million kg this year.
Indian tea is divided into two zones one is North Indian tea and the other is South Indian tea. North India is producing good quality Cut, turn and curl (CTC) tea it cost 20 to 40 cents costly than Kenya tea. While South Indian tea is economical and comparatively cheap tea for our purposes and it goes into blending well with African tea.
When Daily Times approached Pakistan Tea Association Chairman Hamid Saeed to comment on the whole scenario he said, “We also wanted to import tea form India but there are few problems yet to be solved to improve import.”
“As North Indian tea production is seasonal and therefore some time they cannot meet our requirements on time while Kenya is delivering our shipment in one week time,” he added.
Mr Saeed said we also want to build good relationship with Indian Tea Board and the reason to approach them is that Pakistan is dependent on Kenyan tea. Pakistani tea traders want an alternative and do not want to totally rely on Kenyan tea.
Pakistan Tea Association Secretary Khusro Nizar Ahmed Farooqui said due to the uncertainty of political relationship between the two countries and the visa restrictions are badly effecting the tea imports. Due to these doubts buyers are not ready to take risk and they prefers Kenya as they can easily get their shipment on time and there are no visa limitations.
