TEA IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

Pakistan has a long tradition of tea drinking that has now become an integral part of the countrys social life. The first tea experiments were initiated in the thenWest Pakistan (present Pakistan) in village Baffa (district Mansehra, NWFP) under the auspices of Pakistan Tea Board in 1958.These efforts were not followed up because tea production in the then East Pakistan (now Bagladesh) met the needs of the Nation. Subsequently, efforts to grow tea were reinitiated in1964 at Misriot Dam near Rawalpindi but due to unfavorable soil and climatic conditions could not achieve the desired results (Annual Report PARC-1996). After the delinking of East Pakistan the entire requirement of tea is imported by Pakistan (Refer Tea imports by Pakistan, Hanif Janoo, IJTS 1:4, 2002). Pakistan is the 3rd largest importer of tea after England and Russia and the consumption is increasing day by day with the increase in population. The quantity and cost of black tea imported during the past ten years is given in Table 1.Tea ranks 8th in the major.