India, Sri Lanka tea boards sign import agreement

The Tea Board of India and Tea Board of Sri Lanka today signed a mutual recognition agreement for tea coming into each of the countries.

Basudeb Banerjee, chairman, Tea Board of India said, it was a comprehensive economic partnership agreement and the agreement would enable free flow of tea into each other’s country without having to go through the process of testing.

Banerjee however said that there was not much imports from Sri Lanka. According to the FTA with Sri Lanka, the Indian side allows a duty of 7.5 million upto 15 million kg of imports from Sri Lanka though the same is not applicable for Indian imports into Sri Lanka. For re-exports it’s zero duty in both countries.

Banerjee said, the small quantity of imports is largely to the difference in consumption patterns of the two countries. India is essentially a CTC market while Sri Lanka is an orthodox tea market.

Sri Lanka’s exports from orthodox tea stands at $1.2 billion and is looking at $1.5 billion. India’s total exports on other hand is $0.5 billion.

Banerjee said, India would end the year with an orthodox production of 90 million kg, up 7-8 million kg from last year’s.

A memorandum of understanding between the Tea Research Association of India and Tea Research Institute of Sri Lanka would be signed tomorrow in Assam on collaboration.