Tata Tea launches `Select''

The product has been introduced in these markets after extensive research on quality and preference of customers, including Arabs as well as others. It is available both in tea bags and packets.

With this, Tata Tea will have a significant presence in 47 countries world wide, T. Damu, Special Advisor, Tata Tea, said at a press conference here.

The company is initially targeting 200 to 300 tonnes in the first year from the market whereas Kannan Devan, which has been present in West Asia for the last two years, is selling approximately 400 to 500 tonnes per annum, he said.

Tata Tea is planning to export organic tea produced from its own estates. The trail production has started and the product will be available in four months, Damu said.

The organic tea has good demand in European and Japanese market. The company will also strengthen its position in the specialized tea sector , he said. Asim Hazarika, CEO, Tata Tetley, said Select Finest Assam is produced from tea leaves picked from the tea gardens of Assam. The company's operations span the entire value chain in tea, including research and development, tea cultivation, manufacture of black tea and distribution. It owns 55 tea estates in India, with an area of 26,500 hectares under tea cultivation and produces around 60 million kg of black tea and two million kg of instant tea annually, he said.

Hazarika said the company has taken up organic tea cultivation in Munnar on an experimental basis by converting the old tea plantations. It has the capacity to produce 400 tonnes per annum.

S. Laxmanan, Deputy General Manager (Global Business Division), said Tata Tea with its subsidiary company Tetley Group Ltd, UK, has a global branded business amounting to $620 million. The combined sales of the group would represent the second-largest branded tea portfolio in the world.