Good news awaits tea growers in India. After resolving the payment-route issue, tea exports to Iran have picked up in past few months. On other hand, tea exports to Egypt is also growing at a faster pace.
Iran ? the largest importer of tea after Russia, the UAE, UK and US ? imports around 75,000 tonne tea each year. India’s exports to Iran fell after the US imposed sanctions on exports to the oil-rich country. There is a good demand for Indian tea in Iran, but India started losing out on it with restrictions on payments to the oil producing country.
Mohammad Feissal, the managing director of Shahsavand Zarin co, one of the largest tea growing company in Iran said, ?Indian exports to Iran have improved in last few months. We are receiving 100 tonne every month from India. It has grown significantly from 50 tonne in 2010.? Almost 40% of Iran?s tea import comes from Kenya, 10% from Sri Lanka and rest from India.
?Payment is not a problem now. We are hopeful of an increase in Indian export by around 30%,? Feissal said. Meanwhile, Egypt is also looking at stepping up imports from India. The 80 million kg tea market is mainly catered to by Kenya. In 2010, Egypt was identified by the Tea Board as one of the emerging markets for Indian tea export by Tea Board.
Mahmoud El Nahas, head (sector import) of Misr Import & Export Co, said, ?We are trying to increase imports from India to 15,000 tonne last year to 17,000 tonne in 2012. Kenya is the largest exporter to Egypt. India can increase its exports to Egypt if it is little proactive,? he said.
While Sri Lanka sells CTC tea at an average rate of $4 per kg, Indian tea is priced between $1.8 and $3.5. ?That makes Indian tea a natural favourite of the Egyptian importers,? Nahas said.
Export of Indian tea is likely to decline from 193 million kg to 180 million kg in 2012. Tea production in 2012 may also decline according to a recent study conducted by IMaCS (Icra Management Consulting Services).
