Skip to content Skip to navigation

Egypt: A new destination for Assam tea

Assam tea is all set to make inroads in the markets of Pyramid land - Egypt. Assam tea producers are considering Egypt as the latest destination for Assam tea.
Delegations of tea planters from the state recently back from Egypt and Israel have stated that Egypt has huge potential for the export of Assam tea. Egypt is presently importing its maximum tea from Kenya, which incidentally is the world’s largest tea producer.

Of the 75 million kilogram which the total market area of tea in Egypt, 90 percent is supplied by Kenya and Indian tea including Assam tea supplies about 2.7 million kilograms (2006) of tea.

The political unrest in Kenya may become beneficial to Assam if it takes advantage of the political crisis and presents itself as a stable and trustworthy tea importer.
Bidyananda Barkakoty, vice chairman, North Eastern Tea Association stated that Assam’s CTC tea has a good market in Egypt as the importers there are aware of the qualities of Assam tea.

He also stated that the duty reduction from 30 percent to 2 percent is another favorable factor for promoting Assam tea. However, Israel on the other hand is not a substantial tea consumer moreover the people are not very aware of Assam tea there.

The Geographical Indication (GI) registration of Assam tea would also prove beneficial to the tea export from Assam. Assam produces about 90 percent of CTC tea and the production of orthodox tea which has a huge demand in European countries, is a mere 7 percent.

Comments

jaay's picture

Food habits are very peculiar and people are sensitive what they eat and where it comes from. Let me share some experience which is not only strange but such an irony that sometimes I wonder what’s happening out here. Out here in North America, the impression is that Indian food is too spicy and you can feel the fragrance coming out of your clothes, if you have prepared it. So Indians cook their food with closed doors (It is TRUE!!!!) so that GORAS don’t smell it. Now cut this and visit any Indian restaurant here and you will find GORAS eating the same food with all the spices and with such passion that it puts one to shame. Both are true, they like it but will not accept the fact simply because it’s not from their own land. Same goes for TEA, let me share something with you, any business person in EGYPT will know what Assam tea is because when it comes to saving MONEY, and if it is only TEA, they will not mind buying from Assam if it is of same quality and less in price. Now don’t call me a racist, but Egypt is a Muslim country and so is Kenya, another factor. I would like the writer to probe this a bit further, get the statistics that these NETA people have gathered on their visit to Egypt vis-à-vis export promotion of tea. If simply coming back and telling us that Egypt gets 90% of tea from Kenya was the objective, then probably we can leave this issue here but if they have developed some plans to penetrate the Egyptian market, then their trip was something which we can think of being fruitful, else it was another Honeymoon for Old guys on Public money.

Pages

Add new comment

Assamese Translator

Assam Times seeks English to Assamese translators!
Join our volunteer team.
Email editor@assamtimes.org.

Random Stories

Suspected ULFA activists hurls grenade at Moran, no casualities

20 Aug 2007 - 7:02am | editor
Moran : Suspected ULFA activists hurled a bomb at Moran in front of Mahabir Bhawan under Moranhat PS. No casualities have been reported so far.

Congress gearing up in BTC

15 Mar 2015 - 5:00pm | AT News
Congress party has been stepped up to strengthening of  its party position in BTC ahead of council election scheduling to be held by April next,as other parties are gearing up to show mass...

Ayurvedic doctors to attend press club clinic

12 Dec 2016 - 9:04pm | AT News
The next Saturday evening OPD at Guwahati Press Club (GPC) will be attended by a group of physicians from the Government Ayurvedic College, Jalukbari (Assam). Led by Dr Jayanta Sarmah, the group of...

Manpower crisis, lack of vehicles, poor infrustructure hit Chaparmukh

26 Jul 2010 - 8:14pm | Dibya J Borthakur
In view of growing criminal activities, the Chapormukh Police Outpost was set up to curb the same many years ago.Unfortunately, manpower crisis,lack of vehicles, poor infrustucture are the three...

Other Contents by Author

JBF (India), Guwahati Chapter inaugurated an Animal Relief Center for street and stray animals at Chandan Nagar, Survey, Beltola. The aim of the relief center is to provide medical help to the stray and street animals. However it also has a treatment cell where privately owned animals will also be treated and the donations received from owners will be used to run the Animal Relief Center.JBF (India) is an organization promoted by JBF(Scotland), a professionally managed organization working in the field of Animal Welfare since the year 2003. JBF (India) is a member of the Society of World Society for Protection of Animals (WSPA). JBF (India) is also a recognized by the Animal Welfare Board...
Star crossed Assam witnessed yet another assault last night when a powerful bomb planted on the tracks ripped off the luggage van of the Rajdhani Express killing five persons and injuring four others. The 2423 A Down Rajdhani Express was proceeding from Dibrugarh to Guwahati between Naojan and Chongajan railway stations in Golaghat district at about 1.06 am on the ill fated night of December 13.Though the police have not yet ascertained the identity of the militants however they claimed that Adivasi National Liberation Army (ANLA) militants were presumed to be behind the blast.A Central team is coming to take stock of the situation in the aftermath of the blast. It is alleged that the Home...
Just as the future of Assam’s handloom dreams had found wings in the form of the GI status of the muga silk a sudden turn of events threatens to clip those wings in the bud as reports of heavy loss in the muga sector starts pouring in.This winter the muga farmers are staring into eyes of a financial crisis with the failure of the Central Silk Board’s (CSB) summer muga crop popularly known as the Bhadiya. Officially the loss is estimated to be of fifteen crores this year however the farmers and dealers claim it to be around fifty crores. The cause of this calamity has been stated as weather related.Assam produces three different varieties of Silk viz, Pat Muga, and Eri or Endi....
The role of the media in today’s society is two fold. It reports the goings on of our society as well as tries to reform its social evils. But there is a certain section of the electronic visual media which also attempts to kick off a controversy by exaggerating their reporting which ultimately leads to a public outcry followed by its repercussions.The recent furor created by the Beltola violence where Adivasi rallyists clashed with locals is a direct result of such a trend. Moreover, it also exposed the gaping ignorance of the national channels regarding the region that is termed the northeast.The media’s attempt to sensationalize the incident of the Beltola clash reached...
Violence has revisited Assam with a vengeance. After a comparatively peaceful period once again Assam bleeds. The unfortunate incident of group clash jolted Assam out of its reverie and has triggered a kind of a chain reaction of bandhs, blasts and increased the probability of ethnic clashes. Ethnic clashes were an alien occurrence in Assam till black Saturday dawned upon the people of Assam on the fateful day of November 24.An allegedly peaceful rally of Adivasi Students’ Association demanding the status of Scheduled Tribes status of the Adivasi community turned into a gory battleground for local residents of Beltola area of Guwahati and the rallyists. Hundreds of vehicles, shops and...
Assam tea has reached new heights with the recent conferring of Geographical Indications label ,GI status to the Orthodox Assam tea. Orthodox tea is the second Assam product to bag the GI label after muga silk. The GI label is exclusive to only a handful of generically identifiable products such as Swiss watches, Czech crystals, champagne, Mysore sandalwood oil and Kancheepuram silk.There are certain requirements that the product has to fulfill before getting the GI status. The products should have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are special to that particular state or place of origin to qualify for the GI status.The GI status is going to be hugely...
“The aim of education is the knowledge not of facts but of values,” a maxim which seems to have lost its true meaning in the rampant commercialization of education in our present day. Value education is an important rung in the ladder of education but sadly our schools and colleges fail to provide the same to our students. Today education has been taken over by the syllabus as education ends with the completion of the syllabus, a trend which in turn has given rise to a number of institutes and universities carrying forward the wheel of education in a mechanical sense.Imparting of knowledge has become a business to certain people who claim to provide various courses for...
Now I know you now I don’t that’s the secret game going on between the former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and his estranged party members. After splits, expulsion, reunions, agreements disagreements the former AGP chief is once again surrounded in controversy as his reputation is once again tarnished by the indictment in the “secret killings” case. Constituted in 2005 the justice (Retd) KN Saikia Commission of Inquiry on Secret Killings carried out between the year 1998 and 2001 after studying 35 cases of the nature of secret killing in four phases, in its report held Mahanta the then chief minister as well as in charge of the home department responsible...
The tourism sector of Assam is a boom waiting to happen. Picturesque landscape, cultural heritage, historical monuments and artifacts all are in abundance here albeit in various stages of neglect. A little effort on the part of the government and people can turn the state into a tourist hub. Many steps are in the pipeline to give the all important push to the fledging tourism industry of the state. One such project jointly funded by the state government and the Centre promises to give a new lease of lie to the neglected Ahom era monuments in Siva sagar district, a project which was initiated by Hemoprava Saikia the chairperson of the Assam Tourism Development Corporation. The budget of...
They say “health is wealth” but in Assam “ill health means drain of wealth”. The people of Assam seem to have lost their faith in the medical facilities and treatment provided in Assam. The commercialization of the medical profession has totally disillusioned the common public. Minor ailments require a plethora of health check ups the cost of which burns a hole in the pockets of poor patients. However, the ones who can afford prefer to go outside the state for treatments without taking the chances of wrong diagnosis or pricy hospital bills. The government hospitals are the last resorts of suffering patients who brave the unhygienic, rat infested, garbage heaped...