Pakistan can cut its import bill by utilizing its great potential for growing tea on a large scale, the media reported.
Tea is one of the significant high-value cash crops. Although low cost, tea is the most popular beverage in Pakistan. The country possesses great potential for tea plantations on a large scale.
Talking to the media, Director of National Tea and High-Value Crops Research Institute Shinkiari Abdul Waheed said that the current rate of population growth revealed that demand for tea would continue to increase with the passage of time, putting pressure on limited foreign exchange resources.
Abdul Waheed said that countrys total import bill for tea in the fiscal year 2022 was over $590 million.
?A survey conducted recently showed that there is great potential for tea cultivation in Pakistan. A total of 158,000 acres of land in Khyber Pakhtunkwa while 4,000 acres in Azad Jammu and Kashmir are suitable for tea plantation, which can not only fulfil the local demand but can be also exported to other countries, the survey said.
According to Abdul Waheed, more than 15 tonnes of locally produced and processed green tea was exported to Japan in the last three to four years.
Tea plants can be raised both from seed and cuttings. In Tea World, tea has initially been raised through seeds because of the economic ease with which its plantation is expanded, the director of the research centre commented.
Several countries such as China, India, and Sri Lanka, the world-known tea manufacturers for centuries, still raise over 75% of tea through seeds. Because of high population pressure coupled with the low economic condition, Pakistan currently needs to grow tea. Besides, the country also needs to enhance the yield of all agricultural commodities.
Historically speaking, nations of the world have always gained self-sufficiency in quantities first before becoming quality conscious. Thus, tea quantity in the shortest possible time can be economically obtained from tea seeds and not from cuttings, Waheed said.