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Kohinoor Mandal

KOLKATA, April 17

IT is a novel way of re-establishing one's presence in a promising market, which has been ravaged by war.

Iraq was in fact perhaps the fastest growing market for Indian tea, providing some relief in an otherwise barren landscape for the tea industry. This scenario was hit for a six when Washington began its military campaign to rid Iraq of Mr Saddam Hussein. It is time now to get the threads together once again and resume the tea business in the same promising vein as before the war.

A section of the Indian tea industry has now written to the Tea Board Chairman, the President of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), and UNICEF's Indian representative expressing its willingness to donate tea to the war-hit Iraqis.

The proposal was mooted by Mr P.O. Desai, Chairman of Federation of All-India Tea Trading Community (FAITTA). In fact, in order to set the ball rolling, Mr Desai's company, the Ahmedabad-based Wagh Bakri, has agreed to donate 1,000 packets of 100 g of tea to Iraq.

Though a large section of the domestic industry is eyeing the reconstruction business in Iraq, FAITTA feels that Indians should extend a helping hand to Iraqis first. ``After all, humanity should come first and financial projects next,'' Mr Desai wrote.

It may be noted that India's tea exports to Iraq jumped dramatically by 178 per cent to 40.25 million in January-November 2002 against 14.50 million kg in the corresponding period of 2001. In no other export market has the Indian tea industry witnessed such phenomenal growth.

``Now is the right time when we should reciprocate and help the unfortunate population of Iraq. If we donate Indian tea, it will give us a good name and it will give the Iraqis energy to think wisely and in turn increase our goodwill with that country. In the long run, it may provide us with better business opportunity,'' Mr Desai wrote to Mr A.C. Muthaiah, the FICCI President.

Though the proposal was floated only a few days back, industry sources say it has already received a favourable response from different tea companies. However, nothing has been finalised on how and where the tea should be sent.

Meanwhile, nobody in the industry has any firm idea about the scenario in Iraq. Mr Naba Kumar Das, the Tea Board Chairman, told Business Line recently that Indians had won some contracts for tea exports under the 13th round of Iraq Food-for-oil programme, but the LCs (letter of credit) had not been opened.

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