Pak for doubling Indian tea import

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Close on the heels of the Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari’s visit, a 13-member tea trade delegation is in the country.

A meeting with members of the Indian Tea Association in Kolkata on Tuesday came to a broad agreement to double tea shipments from the present 24 million kg to 50 million kg over the next three years.

The ITA secretary-general, Mr Manojith Dasgupta, told this newspaper that the deliberations were fruitful and the team led by the Pakistan Tea Association chairman Mohammed Jan-oo, was expected to move down South on Friday.

Pakistan imported nearly 24 million kg in 2011, the bulk of it being from South India, against 19 million kg the previous year.

Pakistan currently depe-nds mainly on Kenya to meet around 170-180 million kg of its annual demand.

However, with the production in Kenya now projected to be lower, there are reports of higher prices which has forced Pakistan to look at its neighbour.

Essentially a lower variety CTC (cut, tear, curl) market, Pakistan had earlier depended on a single market like Sri Lanka and way back in 1984 when prices shot up, it looked to Kenya.

The tea trade in the South is waiting for the arrival of the PTA team since it had just completed its annual golden leaf awards for quality teas and would be able to showcase a variety of them.

The president of the United Planters Associa-tion of Southern India, Mr D. Hegde, said there would be a series of tea-tasting sessions on Friday and Satur-day and the industry here was ready with a variety of quality teas.

However, traders says most of the teas here matc-hed Kenyan ones in quality.

“When the average price offered for Kenyan teas was around $3 a kg, an offer of a shade more than $1 for tea from here would not help. If it insisted on quality, it would have to pay a price,” said a Kochi-based trader.