Tea growers and traders in India can heave a sigh of relief now with the country's tea export to Pakistan showing tremendous improvement.

According to Tea Board of India the Indian tea export to Pakistan is expected to exceed 25 million kg during next three years. From January to March this year India has exported some 2.7 million kg of tea to Pakistan. The pace of Indian tea export is peaking and could comfortably exceed last year's 14 million kg that Pakistan consumed.

Basudeb Banerjee, chairman of the Tea Board, has stated that last year India lagged behind China losing the mantle of being the largest global tea producer. Last year China produced 1,024 million kg tea while India's production had stagnated around 955 million kg.

"But during 2007 we are striving to augment our tea production with the hope to win back our past glory of being the largest global tea producer," claimed the board chairman, adding that the board had envisaged an export target of around 210 million kg this year while India had exported some 203.8 million kg last year.

Banerjee has also said that the board had embarked upon a campaign to promote tea export to Pakistan and an expert Indian delegation has recently toured Pakistan with this goal.

"The visit to Pakistan was successful and the delegation covered Lahore, Peshawar and other important markets. Pakistan's commerce ministry officials assured us of a composite dialogue between the two countries in July where the suggestions of the Indians would be taken up. These include opening up of land trade, including cargo movement by rail, and preferential trading arrangements such as lower customs duty."

The Indian delegation has also visited the offices of blender packers who has requested for an Indian Tea Centre in Karachi on similar lines of that being conceptualised in Egypt. The centre would exhibit Indian varieties from various regions like Assam, Niligiri, Dooars/Terai and Darjeeling.

Banerjee said the board expected Pakistan would lap up at least 10 per cent of the total Indian tea exports because of its quality and reasonably comfortable price. He has also revealed that Egypt had of late become another major importer of the Indian tea and the trend was on the rise. Last year, Egypt had imported some 2.7 million kg of Indian tea, but this year it was slated to import around 10 million kg.