ISLAMABAD: Parliamentary Secretary for National Food and Research Natasha Daultana told the National Assembly on Monday that Pakistan imported black tea from 19 countries worth Rs25.03 billion.
Replying to various questions during the Question Hour, she said that around 127,316 metric tonnes of black tea was imported during 2010-2011. The major share of 55.1 per cent was imported from Kenya followed by India at 17.13 per cent.
Giving information regarding the government's steps to increase cultivation of tea, she said successful plantation has been demonstrated, its yield potential and quality have been assessed to be economically viable and finally a production package has been evolved through the research efforts of scientists of National Tea Research Institute (NTRI) under Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC).
Replying to another question, she said the stock of fertiliser is sufficient to meet the domestic demand of the country. The Parliamentary Secretary said the estimated demand of urea for Rabi during 2012-13 is around 3 million tones, reflecting a gap of only 0.344million tonnes. She added that at present the opening stock of urea at the start of Rabi 2012-13 is expected to be 0.503 million tonnes. Daultana informed that due to 12 per cent gas curtailment for urea plants, the estimated domestic production of urea will be around 1.90 millon tonnes.
The Parliamentary Secretary said the DAP availability in upcoming Rabi 2012-13 season seems to be satisfactory.
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Trials have been conducted for growing tea in Pakistan, particularly Mansehra, Battagram, Swat and Azad Kashmir. These trials have shown good results in Northern Pakistan, but the necessary commercial investment needed to develop a viable industry has not yet materialized.
http://www.riazhaq.com/2009/12/pakistans-tea-addiction.html
@A. Khan: Do u Know tea needs 200-300 mm of rainfall that to spread out through out the year..........We donot have such rainfall as in India
I cannot believe that we have not done any research in order to find a suitable climate area where tea can be grown in this country. India has Darjeeling, producing a high quality tea. Many locations in Northern Pakistan and AJK have similar high altitude and wet climate. Yet nothing appears to have been done to reduce this dependence of importing a luxury (yes, tea is a luxury) item.
Looks like we are addicted.
Pakistan is blessed with all types of land. Even a small percentage of the tax collected on this import been used to research, some good results would have been achieved. It is still not too late though. So much foreign reserves could be saved.