The Gujarat tea traders' association is in the process of identifying land for the project. The state has the highest per capita consumption of tea.

Chetan Patel, president of the Gujarat Tea Traders’ Association, said: “The tea park will be on the lines of the one being developed in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal. We have approached the TCI to develop the park in Kandla, which can speed up the import and export of tea.”

At present, it is difficult for the traders to import tea from countries like Sri Lanka and Indonesia, due to a high import duty.

“This scenario, however, will last only for five years. After that, the traders will be able to import high quality tea from Sri Lanka and Indonesia at economical prices,” Patel said.

In West Bengal, the tea park is on a 50-acre plot in Jalpaiguri district and is expected to give special impetus to tea export from the Dooars and Terai regions in north Bengal.

The traders in Gujarat are now looking for a similar park, where they can have facilities related to importing, blending, packaging and exporting the tea to the Middle Eastern countries.

At present, the tea is brought from the auction houses in Kolkata. The value additions are done by tea manufacturers. The product is then sold in the domestic and international market.

A tea park will prove beneficial to tea traders in two ways. Firstly, the blending, packaging and other processes can be done at one place and therefore, cutting the production cost.