Calcutta, Feb. 5: Tea factories in the special economic zone (SEZ) at Falta are feeling the heat of shipment delays.

The jetty facilities are not properly developed and poor roads have made things worse.

“We earlier used to ship tea from Assam, Bangladesh and Namkhana to Hooghly but after shifting to Falta, we are facing many problems. The Central Inland Water Transport Corporation should utilise the waterways in this region for shipment. This is crucial for the overseas market,” said Bharat Arya, managing director, JV Gokal & Co Pvt Ltd and one of the largest exporters of tea to Russia.

North Western Cachar Tea managing director Nirad Kant Bagla also said a lot could be done to develop the existing jetty facilities.

The assistant development commissioner of the Falta SEZ, U. Roychoudhury, said the complaints were being looked into and will be reviewed on a case-to-case basis.

Tea Board chairman Basudeb Banerjee pointed out that such complaints were frequent and trade infrastructure would be one of the key issues to boost exports.

“We have scheduled a meeting with the state commerce secretary this month on the export processing zone under Apeda, which is slated to be developed for tea. There is a logistics hub being planned in Siliguri. It will have common facilities to transport tea from the auction houses to customers,” Banerjee remarked.

Earlier, export buyers like Unilever Pakistan and Tapal Tea, the two largest buyers from Pakistan, had also complained about shipment delays from India.

“There are constraints in the whole procurement process, including comparison of samples and shipment of privately-bought tea. It takes three to four weeks for tea to reach Karachi from Mombasa,” a Tapal Tea representative said.

The timeframe may get extended by eight to nine weeks if tea is bought from India, particularly from Calcutta.

There are three units at the Falta SEZ. These are JV Gokal, North Western Cachar Tea and Narendra Tea Co Pvt Ltd. Another new company will also set up operations shortly. There are around 40 to 50 tea exporters (four export-oriented units) in the city with less than a dozen having their own factory infrastructure.

In terms of quantity, Indian exports increased to 170.86 million kg in January-November 2006 from 168.25 million kg in 2005. Export earnings, however, declined by Rs 9.32 crore.

Till October 2006, there was a drop in exports to Commonwealth of Independent states (CIS) countries, including Russia, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, the US, Canada, UAE, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Japan and Australia compared to the corresponding period in 2006.