Dubai opens new center for re-exporting tea

The Indian "Tea Council," which takes Dubai as its headquarters, said on Wednesday that the United Arab Emirates UAE has become a new center for reexporting tea.

The director of the center, Ke Bi Raam has said that the UAE has re-exported some 36,408 tonnes of its total imports of tea in 1998 to other countries in the Gulf region and the former Soviet Union's republics.

The director added that the main reason behind the accelerated importance of the "tea-market in the UAE" is the separation of the countries of the former Soviet Union and the large quantities of tea bought by the Commonwealth states from Dubai.

He said that the UAE has imported some 21,648 tonnes of its total imports of tea from India. He indicated that in 1998, the UAE imported 38,376 tonnes of tea at a total cost of US $100 million.