KARACHI, July 5: Legal black tea import surged by 10 per cent to 116,941 tons in 2003-2004 from 105,244 tons in 2002-2003 Besides, consumers sipped around of 35,000-40,000 tons smuggled black tea in 2003-2004.

The above figures clearly show that country's total tea consumption has improved by seven to 10 per cent to over 150,000 tons in 2003-2004 as compared to 135,000-140,000 in 2002-2003, the chairman, Pakistan Tea Association (PTA), Saeed Ahmed Khawaja told Dawn on Monday.

PTA now portrays a new picture of legal tea trade in the wake of government's decision of slashing import duty on tea to 10 from 20 per cent in the 2004-2005 budget.

"I think the legal black tea import will reach to around 150,000 tons in 2004-2005 owing to duty cut," the chairman said. Smuggled tea will arrive but the quantity will be very negligible in 2004-2005, he said.

Meanwhile, a tea importer said that country's total tea consumption is expected to reach to over 170,000 tons in new fiscal as a result of rising population. Besides, import duty cut will encourage many new players to get engaged in tea business.

Tea sales of both packers/ blenders and loose tea dealers would also rise in 2004-2005 as a result of price cut, he said. The importer said that the measure to cut import duty by 50 per cent would, however, not completely eliminate the menace of smuggling and smugglers would still have a little chance to dump around 10,000-15,000 tons in the Pakistani markets through Afghan Transit Trade (ATT).

Import statistics, compiled by the PTA, revealed that out of total $187m total Pakistan's tea import from around 20 countries, arrival from Kenya remained at the top with $119m in 2003-2004 as against $108m in 2002-2003.

As a result of signing free trade agreement with Bangladesh, tea imports surged to 9,830 tons in 2003-2004 from 5,627 tons in 2002-2003 while 927 tons of tea also landed in Pakistan from Nepal under FTA.

Import of Indian tea stood at 6,872 tons as compared to 3,783 tons in 2002-2003, up by 81 per cent as majority of tea consignments had arrived from South India owing to cheaper rates.

Saeed Ahmed said that increased arrival of black tea from India, Nepal and Bangladesh remained a main reason for boost in legal tea imports. Consumers have started receiving the benefit of import duty cut in shape of price cuts ranging between Rs10-15 per kg. Tapal Tea Private has already cut the prices last week while Unilever is likely to follow the suit as the tea giant is waiting for the clearance of old stocks.