By Syed Zarir Hussain, IANS
Guwahati : Tea planters here were jolted when union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh Friday asked them to shed their “country club culture”, though Hollywood actor Julie Christie raised a toast to the ‘great Indian tea party’.
“The country club culture is too prevalent and there is no fire in the bellies of the tea planters. We need some entrepreneurship in Indian tea and they should shed their Bada Sahib (big boss) attitude,” the minister said, while addressing a gathering at the three-day India International Tea Convention that opened in Assam’s main city of Guwahati.
Scores of planters from across India were left uneasy with the minister opening his speech on a fiery note.
“In the last three decades, the Indian tea industry has organised the India International Tea Convention just five times…we need to hold this every two years if we want to get an international footing in the world tea market,” Ramesh told about 400 delegates.
Then Ramesh read out an SMS from “Dr Zhivago” actor Julie Christie: “I am afraid I am tied up with commitments in Hollywood. I will try to remember the day the convention opens by raising a cup of tea.”
More than 400 delegates — including 49 from 17 countries like Germany, Egypt, Iran, Britain, Pakistan, Kenya and Sri Lanka — are participating at the convention, officially described as the ‘great Indian tea party’.
Government representatives of several tea-producing countries are also attending the meet.
The minister meant business when he exhorted industry captains to push the beverage in the world market aggressively.
“The Indian tea market has now been overtaken by countries like Sri Lanka, Kenya, and Vietnam and unless we respond proactively, we will lose both the domestic and the international markets,” Ramesh said.
He also called for focusing on more trade with Pakistan.
“We are one of the largest producers of tea and Pakistan is one of the world’s largest importers of tea and we need to bolster tea trade with the country just by the side of India,” the minister said. “We need to remove barriers on exporting tea to Pakistan.”
India’s traditional tea markets in Russia and Britain have been severely hit in recent years with the both countries buying cheaper tea from Kenya and Sri Lanka.
Pakistan, Iraq, Egypt and Iran are some of the new markets for India.
India is currently the world’s second largest tea producer, after China, with a record crop of 955 million kg last year. India exported 200 million kg of tea in 2006.
“Indian tea still fascinates Russians and there is nostalgia about the beverage,” Shakil Ahmed, director, tea promotion, at the Indian embassy in Moscow, told IANS.