Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Monday, Dec 22, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version | Audio | Blogs
Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Monday, Dec 22, 2008 ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version | Audio | Blogs |
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Agri-Biz & Commodities
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Tea ‘Be prepared to face competition from Vietnam’ “The India-Asean FTA is ready to be signed. Initially, we looked at goods, but will expand into services also.” Our Bureau Coimbatore, Dec. 21 The Minister of State for Commerce and Power, Mr Jairam Ramesh, called upon the tea industry to be prepared to face competition from Vietnam, after signing the Free Trade Agreement in March 2009. (The Asean agreement was supposed to have taken place on December 17. Owing to the political uncertainty in Thailand, it is now slated for the last week in February.) “The India-Asean FTA is ready to be signed. Initially, we looked at goods, but will expand into services also,” he said and pointed out that India has made offers of liberalisation in three areas — tea, coffee and pepper — where the import duty is to be slashed from the existing level of 100 per cent in coffee to 45 per cent and pepper, and from 70 per cent to 50 per cent by 2018. “Accelerating productivity will enable us face the competition. We need not be afraid. But their productivity of tea and coffee is one-and-half times ours and pepper — five times higher than ours. Rejuvenation and replantation of gardens is therefore important to enhance the productivity of these plantation crops,” he reiterated. Wooing the southSpeaking to reporters after inaugurating the e-auction of tea at the Tea Trade Association of Coimbatore, Mr Ramesh said the Special Purpose Tea Fund did not take off in South India as in the North. “We are reviewing the scheme and will introduce changes to see that South India benefits,” he said. The Minister pointed out that the scheme had failed to evoke positive response in the South because the cost of replantation, estimated at Rs 2.80 lakh/hectare was not considered enough by the apex body of plantations in the South, UPASI. “We increased it to Rs 3.40 lakh/hectare, but UPASI has sought to increase it to Rs 3.70 lakh/hectare as in Darjeeling. We are meeting Nabard to get this norm reviewed,” he said. Labour shortageBesides this, there is a huge shortage of labour here and rejuvenation of bushes and replantation is labour intensive, he said. The Special Purpose Tea Fund was launched in July 2007, with the objective to replant 11,000 hectares every year for the next 15 years. The area under tea in India is about 5 lakh hectares. Bushes (that are over 40 years) are expected to be replanted in about 2 lakh hectares over the 15-year period. The total outlay is Rs 4,760 crore. More Stories on : Tea
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