Dubai Tea Forum, which was attended by a large section of the tea industry, has opened up export opportunities in countries like Iran, Russia, Pakistan, US and Canada.
It is learnt that Indian tea companies and merchant exporters have entered into one-off-deals with importers from these countries for the next fiscal. The meet was attended by 360 delegates from 35 countries.
While the export prospects look bright for the tea industry in 2010-11, the industry is hopeful of achieving a 200 million kg export mark in 2009-2010.
Talking to ET, Mr Basudeb Banerjee, chairman of Tea Board said: "The Dubai meet has been quite useful. All the tea producing nations like Sri Lanka, Kenya, Vietnam, India to Bangladesh participated in the meet. It emerged from the meet that quality teas will be accepted in the world market and fetch better prices."
Mr Banerjee could not indicate what sort of exports would take place in 2010-11. "The market sentiment is strong and demand for tea in the global market is increasing. Though it is too early to say what will be the quantum of exports in the next fiscal, in the last quarter of current fiscal, there has been an increase in tea exports year-on-year basis. Exports have risen by 40% in the last two months, which is a clear indication of economic recovery," said Mr Banerjee.
McLeod Russel India director Azam Monem, who had attended the Dubai meet, said that in the US, Russia, Canada and the Gulf, tea consumption has increased substantially. "Production has declined in countries like Kenya, Sri Lanka and Vietnam and there is scarcely any land left in these countries for tea production. Along with this, tea prices have shot up significantly at the Mombassa auctions.
In this backdrop, Pakistan is looking at India for sourcing tea in a big way. Russia too is keen to pick up quality orthodox teas. Therefore, it augurs well for the Indian tea industry," said Mr Monem. Interestingly, there were 19 buyers from Pakistan alone at the Dubai meet.
"The Middle East is also a big market for us and the Dubai session has enabled Indian tea trade to have business dialogues with a number of importers," Mr Banerjee said. Incidentally, the Dubai Tea Trading Centre presently stocks teas from 13 producing countries, including Kenya, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Nepal, China and Iran.
In keeping with its mandate to further increase the tea trade in and through Dubai, the DTTC also facilitates sales with buyers in the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) countries, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Pakistan, Afghanistan, UK and the CIS countries, and has plans to expand its services to other Middle East and European markets.
source - http://economictimes.indiatimes.com
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