Considering the dip in the sales of packet teas during the last year in urban markets, the industry should think of canned tea, organic tea and derivatives, targetting the growing markets for innovative products, Maheshwari said in a paper presented at the just-concluded National Convention on South India Teas here.

Citing example of Coca Cola, Mr Maheshwari said it has recently launched a new beverage in China, called +Tiamyudi,+ which means ``heaven and earth''. It is bottled drink brewed from Chinese tea leaves with appropriate flavouring, in sweetened and unsweetened varieties, he said.

Saying that the industry should adopt innovative products instead of treating tea merely as a traditional hot drink, the PAT chairman said it was because of the absence of innovation and value addition that the value-wise share of tea was much lower in India, despite it being the largest volume-wise beverage, accounting for 65 per cent of the total beverage market, excluding milk and water.

Innovation required substantial investments in R and D, infrastructure and a vision. The tea industry had, therefore, to go a long way in production-innovation and value addition, he pointed out. As the growth in `healthy products' the globe over had been phenomenal in recent years, promotion of traditional products like tea was not going to be all that easy, Mr Maheshwari noted. Taking cognisance of the fact that six out of every 10 Indians are below 25 years of age, the industry must target them, which is again not going to be easy, he said.

Saying that tea consumption in rural areas is more than in urban areas, Mr Maheshwari said a recent study had indicated that sale of packet teas had dipped from 127 million kg in 1998 to 122 million in 1999 in urban areas compared with an increase from 112 kg to 116 million in rural areas. (PTI)The reasons were obvious - soft drinks were making inroads more in urban areas than in the rural segment.

Since 1998 the growth of packet tea sales had been faster and by 1999 its share had increased to 38 per cent, accounting for 238 million kg of the total consumption of 645 million kg.

There had been fast growth in the local brands, which accounted for nearly 30 per cent of the packet tea market, with a stronger foothold in rural India, especially in the northern and western states, Mr Maheshwari said.However, consumption in the form of tea bags and instant tea was yet to pick up and quantities were still negligible, accounting for just about one per cent of the total tea consumption in the country.

Demanding all efforts to retain and expand urban markets, without viewing rural markets lightly, he said that though most tea advertisements were targetted only at the elite urban consumers, it would be far more easy to promote tea in rural areas.