Tea Exporters Urged to Increase Markets at Home

Tea exporters should focus on developing sales growth at home, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO; Rome), which published a global tea industry report online, this week.

FAO states that major tea exporters, such as China, Kenya, Sri Lanka, and India could increase local consumption of tea by better marketing tea for its health benefits to those consumers.

'Scope for expansion in consumption in traditional import markets like the United Kingdom and Russia is quite limited," says Kaison Chang, secretary of FAO's Inter-Governmental Group on Tea. "But in the countries where tea is produced, the per capita consumption is much lower and so there is a lot more market potential.'

FAO also states that the tea market is vital to the "food security" of developing nations like Sri Lanka, which relies on tea imports for 50% of its agricultural export revenue.

The organization adds that FAO's tea growth is mainly expected to come from green tea, with a possibility for green tea exports to grow by 5.5% annually.

FAO's statements can be found here.