Upasi says Tea Control Order augurs well for exports

According to the new norms, effective April 1, tea consignments for foreign markets will have to be certified by the Tea Board.

"We are very happy that our efforts have paid off. We believe the new order will stop the practice of sub-standard tea re-export from India," Upasi president Anil Bhandari said.

The commerce ministry issued the Tea Control Order to protect the brand equity of Indian tea in the overseas markets as rampant re-export of sub-standard tea was earning a bad name for India, Bhandari said.

The government allows duty-free tea imports on the condition that an equivalent amount be re-exported after some value-addition.

However, this consignment cannot be marked 'Made-in-India' and the label must carry the blending contents. Duty-free imported tea also cannot be sold in the local market.

Often, re-exported tea did not meet quality specifications of the Indian Food Adulteration Act, Bhandari said. "We have been noticing that imported tea is being re-exported without any value-addition," Bhandari said.

"The sub-standard tea is being sold abroad as Indian tea. The trend is quite detrimental for the domestic industry," he said.

In January, a tea consignment to Libya was found inferior. However, it was found that the tea was not made in India but was re-exported as Indian tea.

"After the Libya consignment case, we persuaded the commerce ministry to come up with strict guidelines to stop the practice," Bhandari said.

He said some imported tea also finds its way to the local market.

Last month, the association asked the commerce ministry to take action against companies selling imported tea in the local market.

Tea imports rose 233 per cent to 30 million kg during calendar 2004 compared with nine million kg in the previous year.

Vietnam contributed 17 million kg of the total tea imports. Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Nepal were the three other major tea importers in India.

India is the world's biggest tea producer. In 2004, the country's tea output stood at 820.22 million kg.