KARACHI, May 20: Leading Indian tea packers are again active to sell 10 million kg of black tea to Pakistani importers and packers. A high level 11-member delegation of Indian Tea Association (ITA) has landed in Pakistan on May 19 to sign a memorandum of understanding with Pakistan Tea Association (PTA).

"We intend to sign an MoU with Pakistan Tea Association (PTA) on Friday to sell 10 million kgs tea to Pakistani importers and blenders," leader of the eleven member delegation of Indian Tea Association (ITA), Chandra Kumar Dhanuka told Dawn on Thursday by telephone from a local hotel.

Chandra said Indian blenders and packers are looking forward to exporting 10 million kg from April 2004 to March 2005 to Pakistan. He said he had met leading Pakistani packers who were quite convinced over the quality of Indian tea. However, he said that Pakistani side was only concerned over the price issue.

ITA chief said that Indian tea prices range between Rs30-300 per kg but Pakistani importers prefer to buy medium range price tea from India. It may be recalled here that a 14-member trade delegation of ITA, led by Bharat Bajoria, had shown the same intention of selling 10 million kgs during his visit in the last week of June 2003.

Both ITA and PTA had also signed an MoU on July 2, 2003 under which local traders and blenders would import 10 million kg Indian tea in 2003-2004, provided the PTA was satisfied with the quality and competitive prices.

The ITA's dream of selling 10 million kg, however, could not be materialized. According to PTA chairman, Saeed Ahmed Khawaja, around 6.4 million kg of Indian tea found way into Pakistan during July-April 2003-2004 as compared to three million kg in the same period of 2002-2003.

ITA chief was of the view that Pakistan had imported seven million kg, thus reflecting improvement in tea trade between the two countries. India produces 870 million kg of tea annually out of which 180 million kg are exported.

ITA chief said that the increase in tea arrivals from India was due to frequent interaction with local traders and blenders. On political change in India, he said both trade and political activities would flourish as both the parties - BJP and Congress - were pragmatic.

"Tea trade and even the overall trade would further improve in the next one or two years," he hoped. He said that the import duty rate of 20 per cent in Pakistan should come down. Pakistan meets bulk of its tea requirement from Kenya, he said adding that tea imports from India would be logistically feasible for Pakistan.

Earlier, in a meeting with vice president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), Haroon Rashid at the Federation House on Thursday, Chandra urged the Pakistani government to abolish the import duty on tea in order to pave the way for arrivals of more Indian tea in Pakistan.

He said that high duty rate on tea import is encouraging smuggling of tea in Pakistan, thus hampering legal tea trade between the two countries. The Indian tea price may remain high for another one or two years as compared to Kenya but Pakistani importers should now encourage more tea imports from its neighbouring country.

He said Indian tea packers were ready to facilitate every demand of Pakistani tea importers with reference to quality and prices. It was a mutual consensus of the FPCCI meeting that both the governments of India and Pakistan had recognised the need to normalise political and economic relations between the two countries.

It was also felt in the meeting that the "Kashmir issue", which was hindering normalisation of political relations, would be resolved in near future. The FPCCI vice president, Haroon Rashid suggested that black tea be put on the negative list of Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) in order to stop the tea arrivals from illegal channels.

Chairman PTA, Saeed Ahmed Khawaja said that the North Indian tea was better in quality, but its price was high with the result that was not being imported in Pakistan.

ITA delegation comprises Jagjeet Singh Kandal of Hindustan Lever, Azam Monem of Eveready Indus India Limited, G. Bhala of Warren Tea, Mukundan Raman of The Assam Company Limited, Subratu Basu of Jayshree Tea and Indus Limited, Ujjal Ghosh of Williamson Tea Assam Limited, Ashok Kumar Bhargava of AFT Indus Limited, Raj Kumar Kasera of Bajrangpur Tea Company Limited, Subramanyam Lakhshman of Tata Tea Limited and Monojit Das Gupta, Secretary General of ITA.

Pakistan, which buys 65 per cent of tea from Kenya out of total tea imports of 140,000 tons, is the third largest consumer of tea in the world. Pakistani tea market comprises 45 per cent of loose tea and 55 per cent of packaged tea.