Pakistan tea delegation to visit India next week

A delegation of the Pakistan tea industry will visit India next week. The visit of the 13-member team is being considered significant as it coincides with the visit of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari to India. The interaction between the industry representatives from the two countries comes after a gap of five years. The team will also visit South India. Pakistan imported a record 24 million kg in 2011 from India against 19 million kg the year before. It buys teas mostly from the South. Only about four million kgs was exported from the gardens in North India. “Pakistan is essentially a low quality, low price tea market, but we would like to utilise this opportunity to showcase the Dooars and Assam CTC teas so that they get a clearer idea of the Indian tea basket,” an industry source said. The delegation, which is being led by the Chairman of the Pakistan Tea Association, Mohammad Janoo, will hold meetings with top officials of the Tea Board of India, the Indian Tea Association as well as officials involved with the tea trade. They are also scheduled to attend tea tasting sessions during their three-day visit. The delegation will be in Coimbatore on Friday, where they will stay for three more days. Indian teas attract an import duty of 10 per cent and various other imposts on landing in Pakistan, taking the total amount of levies to 37 per cent. This takes away the competitiveness of Indian teas in a market where it should have had a natural and location advantage, but actually has to compete with countries such as Kenya which have a lion's share of the 120 million kg Pakistan tea market. Keywords: India Pakistan relations, Pak tea delegation