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INDIAN TEA: THE RUSSIAN INITIATIVE
An
Indian tea delegation visited Moscow over 23rd to 26th October
2002 in connection with the launch of the 'Indian Tea Logo
Promotion Programme' in the Russian Federation. The delegation
comprised Mr. N.K. Das, Chairman, Tea Board, Mr. K. S. David,
Addl. Vice-Chairman, ITA and Chairman, Darjeeling Planters
Association, Mr. N. Dharmaraj, Chairman, Tea Committee UPASI,
Mr. M. Das Gupta, Addl. Secretary, ITA., Mr. S. Lakshmanan,
Vice-President Tata Tea Ltd., and Mr. Pankaj Saluja of Accenture
Ltd. The team was assisted and the events were coordinated
by Mr. T.K. Chakraborty, Director Tea Promotion of the Tea
Board's Moscow office.
The delegation commenced its visit with an official meeting
with ROSCHAI KOFE, the premier representative body of tea
and coffee importing firms in the Russian Federation. The
meeting was held in the office of the Ministry of Agriculture
and was attended by senior functionaries of major Russian
tea marketing firms, represented by Maeski Chai (May Tea
Co), Grand Tea House, Vostochny Kupets, Nikitin Tea, Imperatorsky
Chai, Moskovki Chai, etc.
The President of ROSCHAI, Mr. U. G. Steiman, welcomed the
Indian delegation and mentioned that the Russian tea trade
was looking for firmer trade relationships with India in
the years ahead. Mentioning that import of Indian tea into
Russia had declined in the last few years, he stated that
the problems relating to Indian exports had been discussed
at length about a year ago during the celebration of 100
years of Russian Tea, which was organised in Sochi.
It had been mentioned in the course of those deliberations
that Indian tea should be aggressively promoted through
advertisements throughout the Russian Federation and that
there was also scope for enhancing the presence of North
Indian teas in the Russian market. Mr. Steiman mentioned
that competitive measures were steadily intensifying and
Indian exporters would have to gear up to changing market
preferences which have been showing increasing signs of
absorbing quality tea.
The Tea Board Chairman, in his opening remarks, mentioned
that a number of corporates including Goodricke Group Ltd,
Tata Tea Ltd and Harrisons Malayalam Ltd, were represented
in the delegation and
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Tea
Board Chairman Mr. N.K. Das and Addl. Vice Chairman Mr.
K.S. David at the official luncheon hosted by ROSCHAI
Russian importers could take the opportunity of discussing
possible business plans with these reputed producers on
a one-to-one basis.
The
Tea Board Chairman specifically highlighted the increasing
scope for marketing of specialty teas in the Russian Federation,
which was showing visible signs of economic recovery and
increasing consumer spends on quality teas. The case for
Darjeeling, high-grown Nilgiris and Assam teas were mentioned
in this regard.
There
was also specific mention of the need to educate and acquaint
Russian consumers of the high quality CTC tea that were
available from North India whose quality and cuppage factor
may need to be promoted as an adjunct to the Indian Tea
promotion campaign. The Goodricke Group representatives
assured that they would start a dialogue with the Russian
importers and that they were looking at the possibility
of promoting Darjeeling second flush teas which have their
own prospects and may be suitable for blends.
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