COIMBATORE
WITH global consumption of organic tea bound to increase in future, large-scale production of such teas in India would assume considerable significance with the onset of liberalisation, according to a tea researcher.

While demand for conventional tea was declining,the market for organic tea had been growing since its introducion in the late 1980's, according to Dr N Muraleedharan of UPASI Tea Research Foundation at Valparai, near here, said.

In his paper presented at a symposium at Kanaya in Japan, he said there was an urgent need to focus on retaining and improving competitive advantages of Indian tea, which was going to face global competition. This could be achieved only by improving productivity and quality.

In this context, production of organic tea, a value added product, assumed considerable significance, he pointed out.

The price of organic tea was three to four times higher than conventional tea, making it very attractive to producers, despite the increase in production cost and low productivity of organic tea fields, Muraleedharan said.

Stating that global consumption of organic tea had shown a 10 per cent growth in the last decade, he said the concept of organic tea was introduced in India due to the intervention of organic food buyers in Germany.
PTI