India can be a brand for tea, spices: Scindia

Kolkata, Nov 4 : India can emerge as a brand for commodities like tea and spices in the international market, according to Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya M. Scindia.

"The two areas in which India can emerge as brand are tea and spices. We have to reposition ourselves. That requires hard work and strategy," Scindia said here Wednesday.

"Out of the 980 million kilograms of tea produced in this country every year, we export 200 million kilograms, which is mostly CTC (crush, tear, curl)," the minister said at a seminar organised by Bharat Chamber of Commerce here.

"The major market abroad is for orthodox (tea). We require product diversification, moving away from CTC to orthodox. There is need to produce quality tea for export markets, which is why rejuvenation and replantation work is important in the gardens."

Scindia also emphasised that the tea sector needed to focus on value-added products like tea bags to be competitive in the global market.

"We need to integrate the back-end and front-end of the tea industry. The front-end comprises packagers and marketers and the back-end is the producers," he said, adding: "There is no synergy between them."

--IANS