Calcutta, March 22: Plans are afoot to increase tea exports to Japan by selling more of the Darjeeling variety to the country. The industry wants to capitalise on the growing ready-to-drink market in Japan ? a country that figures among the top three export destinations for Darjeeling tea.
India exports 3 million kg of tea to Japan, of which 0.5 million kg is Darjeeling and the rest is high-quality Assam.
Japan has traditionally been a green tea market and imports it from China, but black tea is slowly gaining ground, Tea Board chairman Basudeb Banerjee said.
Banerjee recently led a delegation of nine exporters to the FoodEx fair in Japan where the team interacted with the Japan Tea Association and other buyers and stakeholders.
Among the black tea exporting countries to Japan, Sri Lanka leads by volume and India by value.
The cost of Indian tea per kg is higher as it includes Darjeeling which belongs to the premium category and Japan, like other developed markets such as Germany and the US, values quality. The price of tea exported to Japan during January to November 2005 hovered around Rs 227.34 per kg, while it was Rs 249.27 for the same period in 2004.
Banerjee feels pushing up the volume of Darjeeling tea sold to Japan will give the thrust exports need.
Moreover, intellectual property rights laws are being amended in Japan. After the amendment, stricter laws would help safeguard the Darjeeling brand in that country, Banerjee said.
This will also save the Tea Board resources it expends to prevent and fight cases against people and companies, which put the Darjeeling tag on any tea, he added.
Japan is one of the few countries where the ready-to-drink market is growing.
The industry hopes to persuade the Japanese to use better quality tea through increased interaction between buyers and sellers.
As the US sources most of its ready-to-drink tea from Argentina, India could capitalise on the growing market closer home, Banerjee said.