KOLKATA, India
A memorandum doubling tea exports to Pakistan by 2015 has set in motion a flurry of activity in preparation for increased trade.
G.V.K. Bhanu, Chair of the India Tea Board, announced a system of random checks of tea exports that will ease concerns Pakistan will not become a dumping ground for inferior or counterfeit Indian tea.
Much of the tea to be exported originates in South India and Assam where political leaders raised the possibility of once again opening land and rail trade routes between the countries.
Tea currently travels an unwieldy distance to Pakistan, first to Kolkata then India’s southern ports and from there to Colombo, Sri Lanka before off loading in Karachi, Pakistan. Ironically, tea grown closest to the Pakistani border is often shipped the greatest distance. Pakistan consumes 220 million kilos of tea annually, grows little and yet imports only 120 million kilos, suggesting that 100 million kilos a year transit the border. Most arrives via Afghanistan but significant quantities also cross unofficially from India.
Recognizing this the two countries began permitting national carriers to call on each other’s ports following the signing of a bilateral shipping protocol a few years ago “but where is the cargo volume to warrant such services on regular basis?” asks S. Hajara, Chairman and Managing Director, Shipping Corporation of India.
In a report published in the Hindu Business Line, Hajara said the port at Kochi is much closer to Karachi than Kolkata or Haldia port “but there is no direct shipping service between Kolkata or Haldia and Karachi. None of the national carriers of the two countries call at each other's ports.” An addition obstacle is the fact that the agreement does not apply to shipping containers, the preferred method of protecting tea in transit.
It takes 30 days for a consignment of Assam tea to reach Karachi, twice the time for shipping tea from Mombasa in Kenya, a major competitor supplying tea to Pakistan.
The final hurdle is political. Exporters in West Bengal are eager to establish rail and road transport through the Attari-Wagah border crossing but currently Pakistan restricts transit to 137 items. Tea is not on the list.
Source: Economic Times, Hindu Business Line