The Tea Board is planning to take a delegation to Russia, its single-largest market.
The visit has been planned around Prodexpo, an international product exhibition, which is scheduled to take place between February 9 and 13.
The visit comes at a time when India’s tea exports have registered an overall decline in the first eight months of the fiscal year. Available statistics show Indian tea exports have dropped by around 10 per cent from 140 million kg. between April and November 2013, to 126 million kg. in the same period of 2014.
Russia is a 200 million kg market which was mainly serviced by India which exported CTC (crush tear and curl) category of teas during the times of the erstwhile USSR. However, with increases in purchasing power, Russians moved towards orthodox teas and Sri Lanka marked an increasing presence in the area.
India’s limited availability of orthodox teas also resulted in stagnant exports to Russia. During the period under review Russia, imported 23.6 million kg. compared to 24.1 million kg. India exported 35 million kg. to the country in fiscal 2013-14. As for the overall depressed export condition, sources were of the view that the bumper Kenya crop was one of the main reasons behind the lower Indian exports. The east African country alongside Sri Lanka and China give stiff competition to India in global tea trade.
