India peddles its tea to Egyptian aficionados

In its bid to promote exports of Indian tea, ‘Tea Promotion Centre of India’ is aggressively marketing its product in Egypt to win back a market that was once among its top export market in the nineties.

“We have revived the tea centre at the Indian embassy in Cairo to promote the Indian orthodox and CTC (crush, tear, curl) teas by encouraging local buyers and consumers to taste them,” M R Heiza, director of Indian Tea Promotion Centre (ITPC) said at United Planters Association of Southern India (UPASI)’s annual meet here.

The Indian Tea Promotion Centre-Cairo was set up in January 2010 as a joint venture of state-run Tea Board and the United Planters’ Association of Southern India (UPASI), the apex body of planters in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.

 

In 1992, a higher import duty of 30 per cent on Indian tea by Egypt forced importers to look for other markets. However, the duty was cut to 2 per cent from 30 per cent in 2008, opening up the export market again for Indian tea.

“It was the efforts of then Union minister of state for commerce Jairam Ramesh that helped to cut the import duty on Indian teas and revive interest in the CTC variety, a flavour of Egyptians,” Heiza said.

The main role of ITPC is to restore the popularity of India tea in Egypt where it enjoyed patronage over centuries by opening kiosks across Cairo and encouraging importers to sell the Indian CTC and Orthodox variety in bulk or packet to department stores and retail outlets, he added.

Egypt imports 80 million kg of tea annually of which Kenyan tea accounts for about 90 per cent, while Indian and Sri Lankan tea make up the rest.

With 1.1 kg per annum, Egypt ranks sixth in per capita consumption of tea after Turkey (2.5 kg), Britain (2.1 kg), Ireland (1.5kg), Morocco (1.4 kg) and Iran (1.2kg).

“Our target is to increase the share of Indian teas in Egypt to 15 per cent by 2015 from 5-7 per cent presently and replicate the success in other West Asian markets where orthodox and CTC varieties are equally popular,” Heiza said.

We are roping in the Kolkata-based Indian Tea Association to encourage north-east exporters to join in our efforts to promote Indian teas in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iran, Iraq and Palestine, he added.