India losing Pak tea market to Kenya

Kolkata: Indian tea exporters say they are losing market share in Pakistan, the world’s third-largest importer of the beverage, due to influx of cheap teas into the country from Kenya.

“From October, prices of Kenyan tea started falling. In the initial months of 2017, Kenyan tea production was less, but from October production picked up and the African nation started exporting to Pakistan at a much cheaper price compared to India,” said Gopal Poddar, chairman of Limtex India, a leading tea exporter.


The drop in tea exports, in turn, is driving down tea prices in India. While prices of teas produced in south India have fallen by more than 20 per cent in the last one month, those of Assam teas have dropped by about 10 per cent.

Pakistan consumes 170 million kg of tea every year. The per-capita consumption of tea is estimated to be 1kg a year. The country imports black tea from 19 countries, with Kenya accounting for a major share of that. Green tea is mainly imported from China, Vietnam and Indonesia.

While tea export to Pakistan remains a concern for traders, overall shipment of tea overseas in the first 10 months of 2017 increased by 6.56 per cent to 189.68 million kg. Exports have gone up in the UAE, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Canada, but dropped in the UK and Bangladesh markets, besides Pakistan.

Data from the Tea Board shows that in the 10 months to end of October, the country produced 1,089.87 million kg of tea, up 1.43 per cent from the year-ago period. In 2016, the country had produced 1,267.36 million kg of teas. But meeting or even surpassing last year’s figure will be difficult as there has been some loss in Assam crop in September. The production in November has also been affected because of winter setting in early in the hills.