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Tea re-export after value addition suggested

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Pakistan can re-export tea after value addition and fetch more than $200 million per annum, tea importers believe.

Speaking at a media get-together at a local hotel on Thursday, M. Hanif Janoo, chairman, Pakistan Tea Association (PTA), said time has come to develop tea export industry and exploit the markets available in Central Asian states and in the Middle East countries.

He said Pakistan is importing tea from Sri Lanka, Kenya, Bangladesh and other tea growing countries and a good quantity of imported tea can be blended, packed and re-exported to other markets.

Janoo said about 140 million kg tea is being imported and consumed in Pakistan annually. "In addition to this, more than 20 to 25 million kg tea finds its way into in Pakistan through smuggling".

The PTA is in constant touch with government officials, he added, and trying to solve issues related to general sales tax (GST), smuggling of tea, and exploring markets for tea re-export.

He said, "We do not want to make Pakistan a dumping ground for imported tea, rather to encourage import with the intention to re-export tea after value addition".

He said the Second Pakistan Tea Convention will be held for three days in Karachi from March 26, 2000. Experts in tea trade and tea growing from more than 12 countries have been invited to exchange views on world tea trade and discuss how Pakistan can be made a major tea trade centre in the region with emphasis on re-export of tea after value addition.

Prominent tea growers from across the world are also expected to visit tea growing areas of Pakistan. "Shiankiari will be the centre of focus for the visitors," Janoo said.

Janoo said the participants of the convention will also include engineering firms, tea farmers, importers and blenders, package industry and container services representatives, and bankers. The deliberations during the convention will concentrate on quality control, pricing, re-export strategies, packaging and setting up engineering units to produce goods and machinery needed to improve tea trade in and outside Pakistan. These will be special sessions with the leading foreign tea growers and exporters.

Welcoming the decision of the NWFP government to exempt the growers from all taxes, Janoo said, "This is a good move to encourage tea plantation in Pakistan. We have numerous places which can be converted into tea gardens."

He said tea growers and tea experts believe by the year 2005 Pakistan will be able to grow Pakistani tea on commercial scale.

Pakistan is the third biggest importer of tea after China and the United States.

Tea consumption in Pakistan is growing at the rate of three percent per annum -- equal to the population growth rate. Tea being the cheapest beverage in Pakistan, is rated as a healthy drink.

Aftab Tapal, chairman, organising committee of the Second Pakistan Tea Convention, said the theme of the convention is "Pak- Gateway to Value Market".

He said the convention will streamline tea trade in Pakistan by providing interaction between tea growers of Pakistan and foreign countries, importers, exporters, blenders, packers, distributors, engineers, and retailers. "It will help re-organize tea business on most modern lines and as one of the sources of major foreign exchange earners. Whatever we import, will also be re-exported after value addition."

Kamal Mustafa of Lipton, Yasmin Salahuddin of Tapal, Ali Roja of Metatax (Pvt.), Ali Enayatullah of Global Containers, Mudassir Anjum of MCB and Kh. Abdul Waheed, former president of the PTA, also spoke briefly on the occasion.