A Virtual, non-entity in a country dominated by players like Tata Tea, Hindustan Lever and many other tea conglomerates, Beeyu Overseas has made its mark in the export market.

The company is an agent for corporate like Tata Tea, Global Exports & Marketing, Jay Shree Tea & Industries, Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation, Harissons Malyalam, Asian Coffee, Consolidated Coffee, Parmalat, Alfa Laval, Tetra Pak and Nichrome in Russia.

Says B P Singh, chairman and managing director of Beeyu, that to enter the domestic market, the company must join hands with a foreign company for a joint venture in the country, as the country is likely to enter the consolidation phase. Beeyu would cash in on the marketing expertise of its foreign partner. The company is understood to be in talks with Pickwick Tea and various other companies for the purpose.

Beeyu's diverse business interests in Russia include export of tea, coffee beans, instant coffee, powder and granulated coffee, food processing machinery and rice. The company has been reported in Russia to be one of the best suppliers of quality tea from India.

The company is now blending and packing tea under the brand name, Beeyu. "We are test marketing in India. Darjeeling, Assam and Nilgiri tea from premium gardens are selected and tasted by our experts and packed to give an optimum match of flavor strength, liquor and aroma," said Singh.

The blending and packaging is done at Beeyu Exports Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary in a 35,000 square feet factory in Coimbatore.

The company has also developed a strategy to blend Indian tea with Indonesian, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi teas to meet the various tastes and demands of the Russian buyers.

Business Standard 31.03.2001

THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA is likely to set specific standards for imports of tea in the Exim Policy to ensure quality control in wake of complaints about low graded inflows from Indonesia and Taiwan.

Sources said the quality standards would be in consonance with WTO regulations which included the sanitary and phytosanitary measures.

These could not be termed as non-tariff barriers as india, as a member of WTO, was well within its rights to protect its domestic industry from low grade cheap imports if they were found to be detrimental to public health, they added.

Tea from South-East Asian countries is imported for value added re-exports in SEZ's and are exempted from import duty. Decision on industry's demand for imposing customs duty on imports of plantations, for re-exports would also be taken shortly, they said. (PTI)

The Economic Times 31.03.2001

COLOMBO (Dow Jones)--Sri Lanka's total tea production in February rose 23% compared with the previous year, according to John Keells Tea Brokers Monday.

Tea output in February was estimated at 26.3 million kilograms compared with 21.4 million kilograms in the same month last year, it said.

Brokers said it was the highest monthly production level ever recorded in Sri Lanka.

They attributed the rise to favorable weather patterns since November that led to sustained higher output of mainly low-grown teas. Low-grown teas account for more than 50% of Sri Lanka's total tea production.

In 2000, total tea production stood at 305.8 million kilograms, compared with 283.7 million kilograms in 1999. Production in 2000 was the first time that Sri Lanka's annual tea production surpassed the 300 million-kilogram level, according to the Tea Board.

The government has privatized a number of plantations since 1995, resulting in improved husbandry and more efficient land use and increasing tea output in recent years, according to industry officials.

The government has sold 51%-stakes in 19 plantations.

It still has majority control in three others, which are mainly coconut and rubber plantations.

The following is a breakdown by elevation of tea production for February and the corresponding figures for 2000.

                  2001               2000 
  High Grown     5,814,700          5,988,952 
  Medium Grown   4,166,265          4,076,177 
  Low Grown     16,401,824         11,423,369 
 
  (All figures are in kilograms.) 

Dow Jones(02/04/2001)