Its Tea Time: Pakistan Listed on 7th for Highest per Capita Tea Consumption

Come winters or summers, Pakistan’s love for Chai (tea) makes no distinction between the seasons. This has been officially confirmed by none other than the United Nations now.

According to a report released by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture (FAO) unit, Pakistan is among the top 7 countries where tea consumption has increased significantly.

The country recorded a massive increase of 35.8% in per capita consumption of tea from 2007 to 2016. Currently, Pakistanis consume 172,911 tonnes of black tea. The figure will rise to 250,755 tonnes by 2027, the FAO report estimates.

Report

The report lists down the countries with the highest increase in tea consumption:

• Malawi recorded the highest increase of 565.2% from 2007 to 2016.
• China came in at second with an increase of 128.6% during the same period.
• Rwanda was third with a 110.2% increase.
• Libya’s tea consumption increased by 39.8%.
• Pakistan saw a 35.8% increase in tea consumption as mentioned earlier.
• Indonesia recorded a 26.6% increase,
• Turkey saw an increase of 25.9%.

The report adds that the tea consumption will increase in developing and emerging countries, increasing job opportunities in the rural areas in the process as well.

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China would match Korea in terms of tea exports by 2027 which is the highest exporter of black tea. Production of black tea will increase by 2.2% annually to reach 4.4 million tonnes in 2027.

Green tea’s production will increase at an even faster pace of 7.5% annually to reach 3.6 million by 2027.

Tea Imports in Pakistan

The amount of tea imports in the country increased by 2.36% during July-August in 2017-18 as compared to the same period last year. As per the data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the tea imports stand as follows:

• Pakistan, during this fiscal year, imported 34,126 tonnes of tea worth $94.419 million. Last year, the figure stood at $94.194 million during the same time period.

If we talk about month-by-month imports this year, the stats show us that:

• In May, 11,370 tonnes of tea was imported for Rs 3.583 billion.
• In April, 14,594 tonnes of tea was imported at a cost of Rs 4.855 billion.

For May 2017, Pakistan imported 12,804 tonnes of tea worth Rs 4.057 billion.

Via Dawn