Consulate General of India

Dubai

Consulate General of India

Dubai

Press Release – Tea Board India Virtual B2B Meet

Consulate General of India, Dubai and Tea Board India jointly organized a virtual B2B Meet to promote Indian tea in UAE on 28th September, 2020.

The virtual B2B meeting was attended by more than 100 participants from India, UAE, Bahrain and Oman including Consul General of India to Dubai Dr. Aman Puri, Mr. P K Sahoo, IOFS, Deputy Chairman & Financial Advisor & Chief Accounts Officer, Tea Board India, Ms. Ebtesam Ahmad Alkaabi, Head of Sales, Jafza, Mr. Azam Monem, Whole time Director, Mcleod Russel India Ltd, Mr. Mohit Agarwal, Director, Asian Tea Exports representing the Merchant Exporters from North India, Mrs. Afroze Randerian, Owner & CEO, G. A. Randerian Pvt. Ltd., Mr. C. Shreedharan, Chairman, UPASI, and CEO of Woodbriar Group representing the Producers’ Exporters from South India, Mr. Deepak Shah, Director, Crystal Tea Ltd representing the Merchant Exporters from South India, Mr. Sanjeev Dutta, Executive Director, DMCC Ltd., Dubai, Mrs. Nandini Datta, Deputy Director Tea Promotion Directorate, Tea Board India and Mr. Joydip Biswas, Deputy Director, Tea Promotion Directorate, Tea Board India. Senior management and representatives from UAE’s leading tea importers, supermarket chains and leading FMCG traders and leading tea exporters from Assam, West Bengal and South India also joined the virtual event.

Consul General of India to Dubai Dr. Aman Puri said that the market size of tea is 73 m. kg as per the ITC data for 2018. Out of that, 11% of teas are re- exported (8.25 m. kg). They are mainly directed at two countries viz. Russia (42%) and Iran (34%). The combined import market size of UAE, Kuwait, Oman & Qatar stands at 87 m. kg. He further said that UAE has become an important hub in international trade and is slowly becoming a strong tea consuming market. Tea drinking, much like coffee, is part of the Arabic hospitality experience. India exported 13.65 mn kg of tea to UAE during 2019. It is noteworthy to mention that UAE was the 3rd largest export destination for Indian tea after Iran and Russia and UK being at the fourth position. Tea products with functional Ingredients continue to gain as the health and wellness trend continues to drive robust growth in tea volume and value sales in UAE. This aspect is expected to remain one of the key drivers of demand and innovation in the category over the forecast period of 2019-24.

Ms. Ebtesam Ahmad Alkaabi, Head of Sales, Jafza, UAE gave an informative presentation on the facilities offered to tea traders at Jebel Ali Port. The total tea trade in Dubai is USD559mn with UAE being the largest re-exporter of tea, importing from 64 countries and exporting to 130 countries connecting India to global markets from Dubai. There are 15 weekly services from 10+ shipping lines from 9 ports in India to Jebel Ali Port from where there are 80+ weekly services connecting to 150+ ports in the US, Europe, CIS countries, Africa, Middle East, Far East and South East Asia. She also spoke about the India Business Incubation Centre at Jafza offering various incentives to Indian tea traders and exporters.

The virtual B2B Meet was followed by an open house session where tea traders from both sides interacted with each other and discussed innovative and new ideas to improve trade.

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Dubai

4th October, 2020