The Hindu Business Line : India likely to resume tea talks with Pakistan soon

India hopes to restart the tea dialogue with Pakistan soon, provided talks between Foreign Secretaries of both countries are resumed, said Union Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, on Friday.

It is expected that secretary level talks between both countries may resume following the meeting between Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President, Mr Pervez Musharaff at the NAM Summit in Havana on Saturday night.

"If the foreign secretary talks resume, the first beneficiary would be the Tea Board-Upasi delegation," Mr Ramesh told newspersons on the sidelines of the 113th Annual Conference of the United Planters Association of Southern India.

Delegation visit

A Tea Board-Upasi delegation was supposed to visit Pakistan in August, but was forced to put it off, following the indefinite postponement of secretary-level talks after the Mumbai train blasts.

Pakistan is the second largest importer of the commodity with annual imports estimated at 140 million kg. Though India is the largest producer of tea, its exports to Pakistan stand at 10 million kg. "There is a significant potential to increase our exports to Pakistan," he said.

The Indian tea exports to Pakistan have trebled after both the countries began direct trading in commodity two years ago. Though the country has been facing tough competition from Sri Lanka, Kenya and China in its traditional and new markets, exports to Pakistan registered a whopping 300 per cent growth in 2005 to 10.9 million kg from 3.5 million kg in 2004.

Exports up 33 %

For the first six months of calendar 2006, exports grew 33 per cent to 5.74 million kg in volumes compared to 4.29 million kg in the corresponding period last year. In value terms, the exports grew 40 per cent to Rs 27.6 crore from Rs 19.7 crore, with a higher unit price of Rs 48 per kg against Rs 44 per kg in the previous year.

The demand for Indian teas, especially from the Southern States has seen an upsurge in Pakistan after the two countries agreed to open up trade in commodities as part of the SAPTA (South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement) in the SAARC region and due to lower off-take by Pakistani traders from a drought-hit Kenya this year.

Marketing centre in Cairo

In a bid to tap newer markets such as Egypt and Iran among others for its teas, the Government proposes to set up a tea marketing centre in Cairo, said Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, on Saturday. Addressing Upasi members at the 113th annual conference of the plantation body, Mr Ramesh said the Government was willing to set up infrastructure at the proposed tea marketing centre provided the industry ran the operations. "We could also look at Iran for setting up the centre, which will be optional," he said.

Further, Mr Ramesh also said that the Rs 4,700 crore Special Purpose Tea Fund (SPTF) would be operational by November 1, this year. Following complaints from the tea industry, the electronic auction system is being revamped, Mr Ramesh said adding e-auctions on modified platform would be start from August 1, 2007.

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