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India to make tea auctions Web-compatible

India is reviewing the tea auction system to ensure it is compatible with trading on the Internet, Minister of State Commerce Omar Abdullah said in Calcutta.

"If we are not e-commerce friendly in the immediate future, we might as well forget tea trade," he told reporters after the annual meeting of the Indian Tea Association.

India's tea estates are required to sell 75 per cent of their produce, barring packet tea and exports, through an auction system - a mandatory provision of the Tea Marketing Control Order, or TMCO, of the federal government.

"We will see if TMCO is Internet-friendly. If it isn't, we are stabbing ourselves," Abdullah said, adding that emerging tea trading Web sites demanded a change in rules.

The chief executive of trading portal firm Teauction.com recently said that trading through his Web site amounted to Rs 7 million ($ 160,550) by the end of April and will zoom to Rs 3 billion by December.

The Web site began operations in the middle of March and plans to tie up with local partners in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Kenya and Indonesia later this year.

India's largest and oldest auction house, J Thomas and Company, which handles a third of all tea auctioned in India, is also planing to start trading tea on the Internet.

Indian tea trade targets 225 million kg export in 2000

The Indian Tea Association, a leading trade body has set an export target of 225 million kg of tea in calendar 2000, the trade body's chairman R S Jhawar said on Friday.

"I urge the tea industry to stress on quality production and achieve the export target of 225 million kg," Jhawar told the association's annual general meeting in Calcutta.

India tea exports fell to 190 million in 1999 from 210 million in 1998. Production was down at 805 million kg from a record 870 million kg over the same period.

India is the world's largest producer and consumer of tea.

Jhawar said the current year began on a pessimistic note for the tea industry because of dry weather, but rainfall during April in the main tea-growing areas of eastern India, had improved the outlook.

"While the current year also started with conditions of drought, the weather has improved since April and it is expected that production will see a significant recovery."

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