KOLKATA: With transportation and the seasonality of Indian teas being identified as the main hurdles in increasing tea exports to Pakistan, the issue of opening rail routes for exporting tea is likely to be taken up at the next meeting of SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Area), the Tea Board Chairman, Basudeb Banerjee, said.

Addressing a press meet here on Monday, organised by the Indian Tea Association (ITA), Mr. Banerjee, said a probable rail route would be Attari-Wagah and Munabao (in Rajasthan) and Kokhrapar (Pakistan). He also said that a note on this had already been sent to the Union Minister of State for Commerce. Mr. Banerjee said Pakistan was now keen to diversify its import source reducing excessive dependence on any one country.

Having made a major inroad into the 170-million kg Pakistan tea market, following the Kenyan drought last year, the Indian tea industry is upbeat. It has displaced Bangladesh to become the second largest exporter to Pakistan and a projection of 20 million kg looks achievable by 2008. The optimism stems from the over 60 per cent jump achieved in 2006, when exports touched 15 million kg. Although 2.5 million kg had already been exported between January and March 2007, the final performance would also hinge on the rupee, which is hardening.

Mr. Banerjee said Egypt, Pakistan and Iran were among the focus markets for India which had set a 203 million kg export target for 2007.

ITA Secretary General, Monojit Dasgupta, said that for the first time a composite India tea delegation visited Peshawar in the North West Frontier Province where a buyer-seller meet evoked huge response. This is being seen as a significant development since, this is the conduit point for about 50 million kg of tea making its way in to Pakistan unofficially.

Gautam Bhalla, head of ITA's Pakistan desk, said the seasonality factor arose from the fact that while South India produced tea all through the year, in north India production was seasonal with the main output coming after July.

Satish Shah, representing merchant exporters, said that while preference seemed to be emerging for good quality teas in Pakistan, maintaining price competitiveness was a key factor in getting a larger share of the Pakistani market. At present, Indian teas attract a 33 per cent duty on FOB value in Pakistan.

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