Welcoming the gathering at the International Tea Convention, the commodity board chairman said that the domestic entrepreneurship would get a much needed boost if technological tie-ups are available.

According to him the South Indian tea offers a lot of room for innovative products which is likely to be lapped up by the global consumers. The variety of new products will definitely fetch a premium price.

Showcasing the South Indian tea at the convention, Ahuja said, the flavours from the South Indian hills have received limited exposure in the global markets. The hills here which include about 50,000 small growers apart from the big names like Tata Tea, Harrisons Malayalam, AV Thomas among others export about 50 per cent of the produce and accounts for nearly 23 per cent of the total tea production in the country.In 1998, South India had produced about 200 million kg of tea, constituting 23 per cent of the country's production. It also makes a large tea producing block after North India, China, Kenya and Sri Lanka, the Board chairman pointed out.

Russia and the CIS block nations are the main importers of South Indian tea, and they corner the lion's share of South Indian export for their requirements.

The Tea Board chairman has said that the nodal agency has initiated a host of measures for improving quality including testing and certification. "Quality certification is being taken up both for plantation practises and processing factories. The tea industry will be asked to conform to the ISO certification standards for both the tea gardens and their units to sell in the global market," said Ahuja.

He said the industry has also been asked to improve the hygiene standards so that the Indian tea matches the HACCP standards set by the advanced countries. Educational and other measures to ensure the quality andhygiene standards should be the order of the day, he added.

He said the new paradigm that governs the global tea industry hinges not on the efficiency of individual farms, but mainly on consumer satisfaction. "Competitiveness depends no longer on cost or quality alone but to a larger extent on the equations in the market," he said adding "export prospects depend not only on buyers but also with the taste of consumers".

He urged the foreign players to take the opportunity thrown open by the liberalisation process in the domestic economy to forge close co-operation and collaboration with the Indian tea industry, especially the south Indian tea industry. "South India offers the best opportunity for innovation of products and entrepreneurship. With its sound R&D base and technical skill the area could offer best opportunity for tie-ups for foreign players," the chairman said.

Earlier, Kerala finance minister T Sivadasa Menon inaugurated the two-day International Tea Convention jointly organised by theUnited Planters Association of South India (Upasi), Tea Board and Tea Traders Association of Kochi, Coimbatore and Coonor.