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Kenya Tea
Board team due today
KARACHI- A delegation of the Kenya Tea Board (KTB) is
scheduled to arrive today (Thursday), which will hold a
meeting with the Pakistan Tea Association (PTA).
The delegation will comprise chairman, managing director and
three board members of KTB. The delegation would also proceed
to Islamabad to hold meetings with the Kenyan high
commissioner and officials of the Ministry of Commerce, said
Chairman PTA, Haji Hanif Janoo.
A delegation of the Kenyan Tea Development Authority (KTDA)
has already visited Pakistan from March 26 to April 1, 2002.
Both the bodies of Kenyan tea trade have offered Pakistan to
assist in tea cultivation by providing technical assistance
and expertise, Janoo said.
Illegal import of Kenyan tea into Pakistan will be the major
issue likely to be raised by the Pakistani tea importers with
the KTB officials as the smuggling of Kenyan tea into Pakistan
is ruining the legal import of the commodity.
Pakistan is the largest importer of Kenyan tea since 1980 in
terms of price and quantity. Tea has a great track record of
generating revenue for national exchequer. The revenue from
tea import was, however, on the decline and the government had
lost about 40 per cent of the revenue from this source,
claimed former regional chairman PTA, Farooq Azam Khawaja.
The smugglers in Afghanistan, Quetta and Peshawar buy Kenyan
tea from Dubai and Afghanistan which finds its way into
Pakistan through illegal channels depriving the country of
precious revenue. "The Kenyan government has never taken any
step to check or at least discuss this type of trade, which is
ruining the legal set-up of this trade," he added.
This is one opportunity for the PTA to discuss with KTDA and
KTB how to curb this menace. Kenya had also treated Pakistan
negatively by closing their market for Pakistani goods, though
immense efforts had been made from Pakistani side, he
remarked.
courtesy Daily The News , 4
April, 2002
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Pakissan.com;
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