Tea festival in Kazakh to boost export

KOLKATA: A tea festival was organized by Tea Board of India with support from Indian embassy in Kazakhstan at Astana (13 - 15 August) and Almaty (12-14 August), as a part of special promotion of Indian Tea in Kazakhstan on the occasion of 66th Independence Day of India.
Kazakhstan is the second largest importer of tea in the CIS region after Russia and imports about 28 million kgs of tea per annum.It is a quality conscious CTC tea market with high per capita consumption of 1.5 kg per annum. Currently India is the leading supplier of tea to this country with a market share of 40.9%. In 2010 total export from India was 11.69 million kgs. In this perspective, the special tea promotion campaign was organized as a part of the 'Project 5-5-5' of which Kazakhstan is one of the focus countries.
As part of the campaign, tea tasting session was organized at Khan Shatyr complex at Astana for three days (12-14 August) for the public, along with cultural programmes showcasing traditional Indian dance and Bollywood theme music. The event witnessed footfall of around 5,000 in three days.
A similar tea tasting session was organized in Almaty at the MEGA shopping complex (12 - 14 August) supported by M/s Premeir's Tea Ltd and M/s J V Gokal & Co. The event saw a footfall of around 3,000 in the three days.
On August 15, a business conference on indian tea was organized at Hotel Intercontinental Almaty, attended by leading tea personalities from Kazakhstan. In the conference, a presentation on Indian tea was delivered by MGVK Bhanu, chairman, Tea Board of India, and key note address was given by Ramaz Chanturya, general director, Association Russteacoffee. The conference witnessed discussion on potential and problems related to tea trade, particularly Indian tea in Kazakhstan.