India making efforts to increase presence in Egypt,Pak: Jairam

Determined efforts are being made to increase the presence of Indian tea in markets like Egypt, Iran and Pakistan, besides its traditional markets, Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh has said.

'In addition to our traditional export markets of Russia, UK and the UAE, we are making determined efforts to increase presence of Indian tea in countries like Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan. Trends are promising and very soon, the Tea Board and UPASI will reopen the India Tea Promotion Centre in Cairo', the minister said in a message sent to India International Tea Convention, which concluded here on Saturday.

While India remains an overwhelmingly CTC-tea producing country, in some markets there was growing demand for orthodox tea due to which the government has embarked on an ambitious programme of increasing the orthodox tea production share in total tea output from the present level of 8-9 per cent to around 12 per cent over the next three-four years, he said.

With India coming more and more under the ambit of the geographical indications (GI) legislation,the country has domestic and 'NBSP GIs' for Darjeeling tea, Kangra Valley Tea, Assam Orthodox Tea and Nilgiri Orthodox Tea, besides a recognised logo for Dooars-Terai tea.This will ensure improved quality and traceability as well,he said.

Stressing on value-addition in tea exports,the minister said the first important initiative in this regard was being started for the export of Darjeeling tea where the value-addition presently takes place outside of India.

The tea industry in India has gone through troubled times and was now in the midst of profound changes. Massive productivity-enhancing programmes have been launched. New research projects to develop better tea varieties suited to different agronomic conditions have been started, he said.

Marketing was receiving a new thrust.The Centre was also examining ways and means of sharing the cost of providing social infrastructure in tea garden areas so that the burden on tea garden owners themselves reduces and their competitiveness is enhanced.

Small tea growers are an important and growing part of the tea industry and their special needs and concerns are being addressed in a focussed manner. Energy efficiency schemes in tea manufacture have been introduced keeping in view the imperatives of reducing the emission of greenhouse gases.

Darjeeling Tea to be the first Indian commodity in the EU registry

GUWAHATI: Darjeeling tea is all set to be the first Indian commodity to be included in the EU registry for geographical indications (GI) — a move that will prevent tea originating from any other place from being sold under the name Darjeeling in the EU market.

India applied for inclusion of the product in the EU’s GI registry last week after completion of all formalities, including putting in place a domestic certification system and building a unified supply chain system for all gardens in Darjeeling. It may take up to two years for Darjeeling tea to be granted GI status by the EU.

GI is an indication that identifies a good as originating from a particular place and its reputation gets associated with the place. Once a country recognizes a particular product as a GI, its name cannot be used by the producers of the same product located at a different place. The EU GI registry offers protection to over 5,000 European products for exclusive use of their names.

Speaking to ET, Tea Board chairman Basudeb Banerjee said the application for a GI in EU was a step in the right direction and could prevent the misuse of the name Darjeeling tea. Tea Board has fought more than 15 cases against infringement and misuse of the Darjeeling name in the last few years including from Sri Lanka, the US and France.

Tea Board was successful in seeking rejection of trademark application for Darjeeling Nouveau by US company Republic of Tea (ROT). The Trademark Trial & Appeal Board of the US ruled that ROT had not been able to prove that consumers view Darjeeling tea as a generic type, as opposed to tea from the Darjeeling region in India.

Another important victory for Tea Board was against French company Dusong’s adoption of the Darjeeling mark with a kettle device. The court of appeal of Paris, on November 22, 2006, ruled that Dusong’s mark impaired the GI Darjeeling and is prejudicial to the Tea Board’s interest.

Steps would soon be taken to get Kangra tea, a registered GI in India, to get an EU registry.