RUSSIA
A delegation of Indian tea producers, exporters, and brokers visited Russia in September to hold talks with buyers from Russia and the entire CIS region.
Russia is the world’s 4th biggest tea consumer and both it and CIS countries are traditional buyers of Indian teas. Georgia is also a major tea consuming country and there are hopes that the demand for India teas may also spread into Turkey. Indian producers are concerned to find new markets in this part of the world as key markets in Egypt and Pakistan markets are not increasing as had been hoped.
India’s biggest competitor in these markets is Sri Lanka, which has been trading into Russia for many years, and Kenya and China have also strengthened their position in Russia in recent years. A similar marketing campaign by Indian producers took place in February this year when 13 companies from India took part in the international Prodexpo exhibition in Moscow.