Guwahati, Jan 31: The Tea Association of India (TAI), an apex body of tea planters and traders on Thursday said that the image of Indian tea has been hit by the re-export of cheap tea imported from African and Asian nations.
TAI said that most of the duty-free tea that has been imported is being re-exported as ‘Indian Tea’ in violation of national law.
“Most teas being imported are cheap quality teas from origins including Iran, Vietnam and Africa. Re-export of these teas as ‘Indian tea’ is giving a bad reputation to Indian tea, undermining the price of Indian tea to the detriment of genuine exporters and image of Indian tea,” TAI President Sandeep Singhania said.
He said it decreases the price of Indian tea, negatively impacting the financial sustainability and wage-paying ability of the industry.
The TAI head said that unless steps are taken for the abolition of the re-export of imported teas as the ‘Indian Tea’, it would have disastrous consequences on prices and the tea economy which would break the financial backbone of the already struggling industry.
He said that the viability of the tea producer has been under acute stress in the absence of fair price discovery of Indian teas.
The tea planters and traders’ body also demanded to adopt a testing model as adopted by Sri Lanka for all teas imported for re-export and consider a ban on duty-free imports for re-export in bulk.
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