Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

Tea exports seen rising to 200 mn kg in 2002

Exports of tea from India, the world's largest producer, are likely to rise over 11 per cent on a year-on-year basis to 200 million kg in 2002, the state-run Tea Board said on Monday.

India exported 179.79 million kg in 2001, 13 per cent lower than the previous year.

Exports in the period from January to March 2002 at 41.32 million kg were up almost six per cent compared with the year-ago period.

"We expect tea exports to rise to 200 million kg this year because of an increased focus on emerging markets with potential," Basudeb Banerjee, deputy chairman of the Tea Board, told Reuters in an interview in Kolkata.

"We expect exports to countries like Iraq, Libya, Syria and Saudi Arabia to go up substantially this year," he said, without giving details. "We are also banking a lot on Afghanistan."

Iraq was the second biggest market for Indian tea in the Middle East after the United Arab Emirates in 2001. India exported 14.14 million kg of tea to Iraq between January-November 2001. Export figures for December 2001 are not currently available.

The Indian Tea Association, the country's largest producers' body, said in January that it was eyeing the market in war-torn Afghanistan to increase its exports.

Banerjee said India's tea exports to Russia, its biggest market, were unlikely to go up this year. "We don't have much hope on that front. Last year, we exported about 70 million kg to Russia. It should stay that way this year," he said.

India's tea exports to Russia have been hit by fierce competition from Indonesia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.

"The Russians these days either want high quality orthodox teas in packaged form as the Sri Lankans supply them or cheap orthodox teas. We fall somewhere in between and that is something we will need to address to grow our exports," he said, without elaborating.

Industry experts say that orthodox teas account for 40 per cent of the world's tea trade. India's share in the orthodox market is a mere 10 per cent.

Tea exports from India have the potential to grow to 270 million kg by 2006, consulting firm Accenture said in a report late in January.

ALSO READ:
The Rediff Budget Special
Money

Tell us what you think of this report