The tea industry has set a production target of 840 million kgs this year, up 4.3 per cent over last year’s 805 million kgs. At the same time, it aims to export 225 million kgs, 18 per cent more than 190 million kgs in 1999. More important, it has decided to increase orthodox tea production by 40 million kgs this year. A better indicator of the change is that the proportion of orthodox tea in the total output will rise from 8.6 per cent to 13 per cent at the end of this year.

Last year, the production of the orthodox variety had been cut to 70 million kgs. This will be raised to 110 million kgs this year to achieve higher rates of growth in tea exports. In 1999, total tea output was pegged at 805 million kgs while the volume of exports was to the tune of 190 million kgs.

The export sub-committee of the Consultative Committee of Planters’ Association (CCPA), which met here today to set targets for this year, decided to swivel the export focus on West Asia and North Africa (Wana) region, US, Canada and Europe to make up for the limited opportunities in the saturated markets like Ireland, Germany and the UK.

The target for exports to Russia and CIS countries has been fixed at 100 million kgs, up from 97 million kgs that was exported to this part of the world last year. Gautam Bhalla, chairman of the export sub-committee of CCPA, said the industry has identified two separate sets of countries for the exports of CTC and orthodox varieties. For instance, North Indian CTC tea will be exported to Pakistan while the US, Canada and Europe have been identified as potential destinations for speciality tea and CTC. In the orthodox category, the North Indian variety will be shipped to Iran and Saudi Arabia while the South Indian output will be exported to Turkey, Jordan, Syria and Iraq.

Bhalla said the increase in orthodox output will come largely from South India. Of the total tea production in South India last year, the orthodox variety accounted for 30 to 35 per cent.