Mumbai, July 14 - Harrisons Malayalam Ltd , the largest tea producer in south India, is expecting tea exports to rise 20 percent in 2008/09 on higher production, a senior official said on Monday.
"We are likely to export about 5.4 million kg this year on better production," Pankaj Kapoor, managing director, told Reuters in an interview.
The company exported about 4.5 million kg on tea in 2007/08. It exports mainly to Sri Lanka, Netherlands, Syria, Pakistan, Russia, and other European countries and is likely to start exports to Iraq and Egypt.
The firm's total tea production in the year ending March 2009 is expected to rise to about 19 million kg, compared with 14 million kg last year, Kapoor said.
Harrisons Malayalam is planning to invest about 150 million rupees for tea replantation in 1,000 hectares by 2010/11, he said.
"At the moment we are concentrating on orthodox (tea) as more export orders are coming," Kapoor said. In the next 3-4 months the company is planning to increase orthodox tea's share to 60-65 percent of the total output from about 50 percent now.
Orthodox tea is a premium quality tea and fetches more price than CTC (crush, tear, curl) variety.
The company is also planning to double its organic tea production to about 500 tonnes by the end of fiscal 2009 to meet rising demand, Kapoor said.
Most of the organic tea is exported and its consumption has been growing by more than 10 percent per annum globally, according to the Tea Board.
Tea qualifies as organic only when environment-friendly techniques are employed in its production.
Prices of tea in India is likely to stay at 72 rupees per kg on average during 2008/09, he said.
Tea prices have jumped more than 40 percent to 84.60 rupees per kg in the first three months of FY09 on rising export demand due to a production shortfall in Kenya, the largest exporter.
Harrisons Malayalam, the country's largest producer of rubber, is planning to invest 370 million rupees for rubber replantation in 2,100 hectares, he said.
Rubber prices are likely to trade between 115-120 rupees per kg on an average in 2008/09, but a lot depend on oil prices, Kapoor said. Natural rubber prices are currently at 130 rupees per kg.
Costly oil makes synthetic rubber, a petroleum product, more expensive and encourages the use of natural rubber.