India’s Tea Board aims to double tea exports to Australia

The Dollar Business Bureau

The Tea Board of India aims to double its tea exports volume to Australia in the next five years.

“Indian tea exports to Australia now stand at 3 million kg. This could double in the next five years,” Executive Director of Tea Board C Paulrasu said, adding that Australia is looking only for specialty products such as green tea, flavoured teas, organic tea and value-added teas.

Earlier, Paulrasu led a 15-member delegation of tea exporters to Australia. “Indian tea exporters are fully geared to cater to the international market,” Paulrasu said.

India’s overall tea exports have gone up slightly in 2015 -16 compared to the previous year. Tea exports to Australia, too, have increaased over the previous year.

According to Tea Board data, the CIS (The Commonwealth of Independent States) continues to be India’s major tea importers at 60.52 million kg in the previous financial year. The shipments to the CIS countries grew to 60.52 million kg in 2015-16 from 54.26 million kg in 2014-15.

Iran at 20.41 million kg, Pakistan at 18.94 million kg, the UK at 17.70 million kg and the UAE at 15.01 million kg are some of the other major importers of Indian tea.

Indian tea production grew by 36 million kg to 1233 million kg in 2015-16 as against the corresponding period of previous year.