India, Lanka tea boards sign import agreement
The Tea Board of India and Tea Board of Sri Lanka today signed a
mutual recognition agreement for tea coming into each of the countries.
Basudeb Banerjee, chairman, Tea Board of India said, it was a
comprehensive economic partnership agreement and the agreement would
enable free flow of tea into each other's country without having to go
through the process of testing.
Banerjee however said that there was not much imports from Sri Lanka.
According to the FTA with Sri Lanka, the Indian side allows a duty of
7.5 million upto 15 million kg of imports from Sri Lanka though the same
is not applicable for Indian imports into Sri Lanka. For re-exports it's
zero duty in both countries. Banerjee said, the small quantity of
imports is largely to the difference in consumption patterns of the two
countries.
India is essentially a CTC market while Sri Lanka is an orthodox tea
market. Sri Lanka's exports from orthodox tea stands at $1.2 billion and
is looking at $1.5 billion. India's total exports on other hand is $0.5
billion. Banerjee said, India would end the year with an orthodox
production of 90 million kg, up 7-8 million kg from last year's.
A memorandum of understanding between the Tea Research Association of
India and Tea Research Institute of Sri Lanka would be signed tomorrow
in Assam on collaboration.
Business Standard
|