ISLAMABAD, May 24: The government has decided to commercialise tea production by shortly launching a Rs890 million public-private partnership programme to reduce the tea import bill that touched Rs13.34 billion in 2005-06.

Official sources said that the ministry of food, agriculture and livestock (Minfal) has finalised a plan to produce tea as an import substitution intervention under a medium-term development framework (MTDF-2005-10).

The objective is develop a high value agriculture crop and promote it in remote regions of the country as per constitutional mandate.

Tea promotion on small farmers' lands and creation of economic opportunities in mountainous areas would create job opportunities and reduce poverty.

The project is expected to be launched in the northern areas of the NWFP and AJK this year, and various exercises have been undertaken to identify suitable areas for tea plantation.

According to the plan, tea plantation would be made on 4,000 acres by the private sector, 800 acres by the NWFP extension department, 200 acres by the AJK extension department and 50 acres in Fata.

The establishment of progeny gardens on 2.5 acres for multiplication of nursery plants from selected bushes at the National Tea Research Institute (NRTI) and production of nursery plants on mass scale by the NTRI, Shinkiari, together at Manserha and AJK are also included in the programme.

Tea is used as a common beverage in almost all over the world. The per capita tea consumption in Pakistan is one kg. Pakistan is the third largest tea importer of the world, with CTC tea holding about 75 per cent of the black tea market.

Pakistan imports all its requirement from 21 different tea producing countries of the world in which Kenya has 63 per cent share, followed by Indonesia and Bangladesh — eight per cent each.

The ministry of food and agriculture has informed the Planning Commission that domestic production of tea in the country is negligible and, therefore, local requirement is met through imports.

The government imported 127,000 tons of tea at a total cost of Rs13.34 billion during the last financial year, which is a huge burden on the national exchequer.

To support the economy of Pakistan, tea production and promotion is one of the main objectives of the agriculture sector. Some major steps towards these objectives have already been taken.

The ministry of agriculture believes that being a labour-intensive crop, tea-cultivation can create new employment opportunities.