Pakistan has huge potential to become self-sufficient in the tea sector. If planted on an additional 2,000 hectares of land offered by the government and invested by private companies, it can meet 95% of the national demand, said Dr Abdul Waheed, Director of National Tea and High Value Crop Research Institute, Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) said in an interview with the China Economic Net (CEN).
“We have done much research in collaboration with China. The tea research institute was also built on the recommendation of Chinese researchers and was later renamed as National Tea and High Value Crop Research Institute,” he said and underlined the need to follow commercialisation.
Pakistan’s heavy reliance on import of tea calls for enhancing the local production capacity. During 2021, Pakistan imported 2,258,000 kg of black and green tea for $596 million.
In the first three quarters (July-March) of fiscal year 2021-22, tea imports recorded an increase of 11.95% as compared to the corresponding period of last year.
“We have 64,000 hectares of land suitable for tea plantation. But so far only less than 80 hectares are dedicated for tea plantation. We must use at least 2,000 to 10,000 hectares under public-private partnership in the first year,” he recommended.
“We should rely on our capacity of four million plants per annum, rather than import,” he told CEN.
“Tea plantation can be promoted through cooperative farming and government subsidies. Private farmers have their own land and need incentives from the government.”
Providing incentives like interest-free loans to growers during the gestation period is also a practice adopted by China.
THE ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED ON THE CHINA ECONOMIC NET
Published in The Express Tribune, August 4th, 2022.
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