Indian Tea Exports Register Decline: Report

New Delhi, Feb 18, IRNA - Indian tea exports have registered a decline of about 23 million kg last year compared to 2011 because of slowdown in the global market, India Tea Association Chairman A K Bhargava said Sunday. North Indiaˈs production had gone down by about 7.5 million kg, while south India had recorded a significant decline of almost 15 million kg, Bhargava said at the 123rd Annual General Meeting of Assam Branch of Indian Tea Association (ABITA), pti reported. There was, however, a positive note for Assam tea industry as it produced four million kg higher than the previous year recording an output of 533 million kg with a turnover of approximately rs5,650 crores, he said. Bhargava attributed the decline to difficult trading conditions in almost all world countries. Europe continues to reflect worrisome economic slowdown, which several experts have recently characterised as having bottomed out but there are expectations that the situation would improve only slowly. Markets such as the CIS, UAE, Iran and Pakistan hold the promise for a turnaround in exports but it must, however, be kept in view that the trading environment continues to pose significant challenges. ˈIt is up to the exporting community to show aggressiveness towards recovering ground in these markets,ˈ he added. Tea Board North East Zone Executive Director R Sahani said that the Tea Boardˈs crop data from January to November this year, released recently, reflected production to be almost at par with 2011 levels. As a result of this significant statistical exercise, it is now clear that all Indian tea production has already crossed the 1,000 million kgs mark and as per the revised 2011 data production is estimated to be around 1063 million kgs. ABITA chairman Chandan Bora during his inaugural address expressed concern over the level of exports which is down by 23 million kgs from 149 million kgs in the previous year. Accounting for over 30 per cent of the global production, India is a world leader in all aspects of tea production, consumption as well as exports. It is the only industry where India has retained its leadership over the past 150 years offering a variety of products, from original orthodox to CTC and now green tea, Darjeeling, Assam tea and Nilgiris. No other country has so many popular varieties of tea. According to the Tea Board of India report, India consumes almost 80 per cent of the total output. The per capita consumption in the country, however, is still lower compared to other countries. The internal consumption of tea for the year 2010 was around 837 million kgs as against 819 million kg in 2009ˈ./end