Indian tea delegation in Egypt to enhance trade ties

A delegation of Indian officials and businessmen dealing in tea is visiting Egypt to participate in an exhibition here as part of efforts by the government to enhance trade relations with the Arab country.
The delegation for the October 29-November 3 visit is headed by Joydip Biswas, Deputy Director of the Tea Board of India, who is accompanied by Rishit Ravindra Patel, Ganesh Moorthy Lingan, Don Bosco Yasudass and Anil George Joseph.
The delegation held an interactive session with Egyptian Minister of Supply and Internal Trade Mohamed Ali El Sheikh and Indian Ambassador to Egypt Sanjay Bhattacharyya.
The session witnessed the participation of around 45 Egyptian officials and businessmen dealing in tea who discussed the trade relations between India and Egypt in the field of tea commerce.

"I discovered in my travels around Egypt that more popular than Bollywood among Egyptians is 'Chai', of course it is not a surprise at all because that's the major beverage in Egypt," Indian envoy Bhattacharyya said.
"Also I found that most people are aware that India used to be a provider for Chai," he added.

He also said that India already has a very great economic presence in Egypt. About 50 Indian companies are investing in Egypt with about USD 3 billion.
The Tea Board of India is a government body tasked with the regulation of tea cultivation and promotion of tea.

Biswas, showed a presentation entitled "the India tea industry at a glance" and gave info about the cities famous in tea industry in India and the types of tea.
"There is a growing demand on tea here in Egypt. The volume of the annual consumption of tea in Egypt is about 90 thousand tons. So the Egyptian market is number one in the Arab world in tea consumption," said Sameh Zaki, deputy chairman of the Board of Cairo Chamber of Commerce adding that Egypt imports tea because the climatic conditions here are not conducive to grow tea.
In recent years, the Egyptian tea market has seen changes that have favoured the expansion of Indian tea exports.

However, India's tea exports to Egypt have not been consistently going as high as 13 million kgs in 2008 and have reduced to 3 million kgs last year.
The government aims to promote Indian tea, which is already quite popular among the Egyptian people, through efforts such as this event where members of the Egyptian tea industry can meet with their Indian counterparts to explore ways to enhance cooperation.
India is the second largest producer of tea in the world and in the last financial year, India registered a record-high tea production of 1,233 million kgs with exports crossing 230 million kgs for the first time in 35 years.

On the other hand, Egypt is one of the top consumers of tea in the world with an annual consumption of over 1 kg on average per person.