Tamil Nadu - Udhagamandalam   

‘Tea trade with Pakistan as usual’

Jairam Ramesh

Udhagamandalam: The recent developments have not affected tea exports to Pakistan, said the Union Minister of State for Commerce and Power, Jairam Ramesh, at Coonoor on Sunday.

Addressing a press conference, he said that trade was continuing as usual. “Only a scheduled visit of a delegation headed by me to Pakistan has been put on hold”, he said and added that Pakistan was the second largest importer of tea. Whereas it imported about 150 million kg every year, India’s share was only 10 to 12 million kg.

“Our aim is to make Pakistan import at least 30 million kg from India”, he said.

An invitation has been extended to the Pakistan importers to participate in the India International Trade Fair (INTF) scheduled to be held in Kochi between February 19 and 21.

Stating that out of a total production of 950 million kg the net export was 185 million kg over the past few years, he said that it had touched the 200 million kg mark during the current fiscal.

Apart from the traditional markets like Russia, the United Kingdom, UAE and Europe focus was on new markets like Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Egypt.

Stating that there was a potential to market about 100 million kg in the new markets, Mr. Ramesh said that the Tea Board and the United Planters Association of Southern India (UPASI) was now in the process of setting up an India Tea Promotion Centre in Cairo.

It was likely to start functioning by the middle of March 2009.

Adverting to a demand to reduce the Value Added Tax on tea sold through auctions from four per cent to one, he said that it would be taken up with the committee dealing with the subject. Efforts were being made to promote domestic consumption, he said and added that quality should not be compromised.

He pointed out that people were switching over from soft drinks to tea.

A separate directorate for the small tea growers will soon come into being in the Tea Board, he said.

Pointing out that there were over 60,000 small tea growers in the Nilgiris alone, he said that the segment accounted for about 40 per cent of the produce.

Listing the schemes that were on the anvil for the segment, he said that subsidy would be extended to self help groups formed by the small growers.

Stating that a couple of small sector tea processing units would be set up in the Nilgiris, Mr. Ramesh said that already a few such units were functioning in places like Assam.

On the power front, he said that the present problems had been created by a combination of factors and hoped that there would be an improvement after about seven or eight months.

Against a total energy requirement of 2.1 billion units the supply now was 1.85.The states most affected were Maharashtra, Haryana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

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