India plans maiden tea delegation to Georgia later this month

September 01, 2015 11:12 pm | Updated March 28, 2016 02:46 pm IST - KOLKATA:

India is planning to send a maiden tea delegation to Georgia later this month. The 10-member official delegation will dovetail the Georgia trip with a visit to Russia. The visit to Russia, India’s single largest tea importer, is the second one this year.

However, it is the visit to Georgia that attracts attention. The trip is being positioned as a strategic move aimed at servicing buyers at Georgia, while exploring opportunities of increasing India’s presence in Turkey, which is also a major importer. India now has a negligible presence in this market.

Turkey cultivates tea, but its high per capita consumption pitches it among the largest tea markets. The fact that its preferred brew is black tea, makes it a sought-after destination by major black tea makers such as Sri Lanka and India, with the former country along with Vietnam commanding a sizeable share of the market now.

In a market where per capita consumption is around two kg, Turkey’s total tea requirement is around 310 million kg, of which 150 million kg comes from domestic sources. India has only a small presence in this market. It now feels that tea exporters servicing the Georgian market could cater to this market as well.

The six-day visit to Russia and Georgia by a 10-12 member delegation comes at a time when the latest export figures paint a none-too-happy picture of Indian tea exports. The delegation, comprises representatives from the merchant exporting community and the producer-exporters. “While the February visit was aimed at participating in a product expo, this time the delegation is keen to showcase India’s strength, especially in orthodox tea, which many Russians, are now preferring over the strong CTC tea that they drank in the erstwhile USSR days. This also brings higher value in terms of earnings.”

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