Tea exports on recovery path

“Exports have shown a 15 per cent jump in the first six months of the current year. If the trend is maintained, India may touch the 200 million kg mark by the end of 2010,” said chairman of  the Indian Tea Association Aditya Khaitan, on Friday. Tea exports in the first half have registered 107.3 mkg as against 93.2 mkg recorded during the same period last year.

    However, there would be a slight change in the export mix as there has been a drop in the production of quality Orthodox variety owing to various factors. Instead of Orthodox, export of CTC(cut-tear-curl) will be higher, he said.
 Incidentally, Iran,Iraq and Russia mainly contribute to India’s export basket so far as the premium orthodox variety is concerned; the more popular CTC variety goes to Pakistan, Egypt and the UK.  “We hope the current trend will be maintained, enabling us to cross the 200 mkg mark,” Khaitanl said.

Talking about the buoyancy in the global market, the ITA chairman said that after more than a couple of years, India’s traditionally important customers like Germany, Japan, Iran,Russia, the UK and UAE have begun lifting tea from India which is a very welcome trend. This apart, there have been pickings from other countries as well.

Exports that recorded a steady rise in the first four months of the current year, suffered a setback following trimming of production in the north between April and August owing to excessive rain and a pest attack, as a result of which productions have gone down by 20 mkg till August. However, on the price front, the north Indian variety has been attracting the highest premium in the world market. In fact, the unit-wise realisation has also gone up substantially.
DH News Service