74% FDI in plantation may be allowed

According to the chairman of Tea Board of India SS Ahuja, the board had taken up the issue for consideration last September and was working on it. "We have been feeling the need of putting a futures market in place for quite some time. We hope to do something about it soon."

Maran said that as the demand-supply projections of tea over the next decade was not encouraging because of the growing competition from carbonated drinks, the tea industry must go in systematically for generic promotion of tea. "I appeal to the entire tea fraternity to come above their brand loyalties for a while and whole-heartedly cooperate in such efforts. If there are serious mismatches between demand and production, the brand image alone cannot help the producer much."

To realise better returns, developing countries should achieve higher levels of value addition, the minister said. Ahuja pointed out that the marginal cost of adding value in India is very low because of the high consumption level. "We are taking initiatives in innovating new products."

CCPA chairman RS Jhawar said the Rs 6000 crore Indian tea industry was taking various steps to improve the image of tea as a consumer friendly, healthy and youthful drink.

He said the industry would strive to push up the per capita consumption of tea from the current level of just a cup to about 3-4 cups a day in the coming years.

Jhawar said the focus of the industry in the new millennium would be to tackle challenges from other competing aerated drinks and leverage tea’s position as a drink with properties to prevent diseases like cancer and heart ailments.