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Kochi, Dec. 20 The Mumbai terror attacks have taken a toll on Indian tea exports to Pakistan. Inaugurating South India’s first e-auction centre in tea at Kochi Mr Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Power, said the plans to start tea trade by road and rail with Pakistan has been put off. His visit to Pakistan scheduled for next month has also been postponed.

Kochi is the fifth place where e-auction in tea is being introduced in India after Kolkata, Gauhati, Siliguri and Jalpaiguri. The e-auction centre for tea in Coimbatore and Coonoor would also be inaugurated immediately. After Assam and Darjeeling tea had obtained GI certification, South India would get its GI certification for the Nilgiri orthodox variety, Mr Ramesh said.

The greatest benefit that e-auction would be offering to the trade, the Minister said, would be the facility to trade from within the confines of your office and in total anonymity. This would also ensure that there is no collusion between bidders.

By 2009, traders sitting in any part of India would be able to register with any of the e-auction centres in the country and execute trade any of these exchanges. This would be possible because of the Web-based software, developed by NSE. Mr Ramesh recollected that the earlier introduction of e-auction of tea had to be called off due to complaints. The settlement system would also be online and web-based. Once the total roll out of the e-auction in tea is completed by September, the existing physical auction centre could be converted for some other commercial purpose such as into shopping malls, or warehouses, or it could be converted into rental property enhancing revenue to the exchanges.

After the last one at Gauhati, the second India International Tea Festival would be hosted in Kochi on February 19-21, 2009. The Tea Board and the Government would be extending all their support to the endeavour. In an effort to boost tea exports, an India Tea Promotion Centre would be set up in Cairo by March. Tea exports to Egypt, which had been reigning at around 19 million kg (mkg) in the 1980s, had plummeted to less than 1 million kg in 2005-06. While the 2008-09 figure is expected to touch 15-20 mkg, the new India Tea Promotion Centre is expected to provide a further fillip.

After the agreement signed between the External Affairs Minister and the Government of Iran, a substantial breakthrough is expected in tea exports. Subsequent to the agreement, Iran had agreed to liberalise all imports from India. The concerted efforts of the Government is expected to take Indian tea exports to 200 mkg during the current fiscal, up from the 180-185 mkg level recorded in the recent past.

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