New Delhi, Feb. 13: India and Sri Lanka have decided to take the initiative to work out a common global strategy, in co-operation with other tea-exporting countries like Kenya, Bangladesh and Indonesia, to secure an equitable, remunerative price for the tea-producing countries in the world market, said Mr. A.G. George, Union Deputy Minister for Commerce, at a press conference here to-day.
Mr. George, who recently returned from a visit to Sri Lanka, where he had talks with the Sri Lanka Minister for Plantation Industries, Mr. Collin D’ Silva, said there would be informal consultations among the tea-producing countries before the forthcoming meeting of the sub-group of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) in Rome on June 9 on the question of remunerative prices for the exports.
The Minister said that it was decided to initiate consultations under the aegis of the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries to evolve a similar strategy in respect of export prices of rubber in the context of the present energy crisis. Malaysia, Thailand, Ceylon, India and Indonesia are the members of the Association accounting for 90 per cent of the world’s production of rubber.
Mr. George said that both India and Sri Lanka had recognised the urgent need to evolve a common global export strategy for tea exports. In spite of the boom in the prices of principal raw materials in the export market, the price of tea had remained relatively stagnant and had increased during the last five years only from Rs. 7.14 to Rs. 8 per kilogramme.
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