Centre keen to revive tea exports

KOLKATA/COIMBATORE: The Union commerce ministry is revamping its tea export strategy to capture newer markets as international prices are brewing higher than domestic prices. Minister of state for commerce Jyotiraditya Scindia has worked out an export stratgey which has been coined as ‘5/5/5’ programme.

Talking to ET, a senior commerce ministry official said: “According to this new export strategy, the country will make an endeavour to spruce up exports in five countries namely Iran, US, Russia, Egypt and Kazakhstan. This will be done in a period of five years through five activities. A task force has been set up to identify these five activities and the financial burden involved in the exercise.” Incidentally, in the January-October period, the country has exported 163.12 million kg tea to global markets.

The commerce ministry has convened a meeting next week in which all these issues will come up for discussion. The task force will also discuss replacement of the current Indian tea logo with a fresh and vibrant one.

The ministry is looking to iron out problems regarding the Cairo Tea Centre that has come up in Egypt to market Indian tea. Hardly any sales has taken place at this centre due to the quality and price differences and pre-shipment issues. United Planters’ Association of Southern India (Upasi) secretary general Ullas Menon, who is also a part of the task force, said not much has happened through the centre at Cairo.