China visit cancellation a scheduling issue: Nath

The government’s decision to cancel a visit to China by commerce minister Kamal Nath next week came after the Chinese, at virtually the last minute, asked India to postpone the trip.

The provocation gave India, already smarting under a diplomatic snub, another reason to cancel Nath’s visit, who was to head the empowered group for discussions on a future economic agreement with China.

While India sought to play down the cancellation of the visit as being linked to a diplomatic fracas with China, government sources were quick to point out that the cancellation certainly served a diplomatic purpose.

The continued strain with China must be surprising, because it has indicated that India has already apologised for the security breach in New Delhi.

On Tuesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Qin Gang said countries where embassies had been attacked by Tibetan protesters had all apologised to China.

In his weekly press briefing, he said, “Chinese embassies in more than a dozen countries were attacked by rioters, causing property losses and leaving lives of Chinese diplomats under threat. We have made solemn representation to relevant governments, requiring them to protect the safety and dignity of our diplomatic missions and personnel according to Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Expressing their regret and apology, relevant countries promised to step up protection for Chinese embassies, consulates and personnel.”

Meanwhile, Kamal Nath maintained that the cancellation of his visit was a scheduling issue, not a diplomatic one.

“We have to cancel the trip for the time being, we will seek fresh dates. My trip has not been called off because of any diplomatic reasons, my trip has been cancelled because of problems in dates,” he said.

The minister added that India’s trade with China continued to be healthy. “We are looking forward to achieving record level of trade with China in the current year,” he said. India has a roaring economic relationship with China which has overtaken the US as India’s premier trading partner.

Apart from bilateral trade, Chinese companies are looking at over $12 billion in projects in India, particularly in the infrastructure sector. In fact, many Chinese companies are now the preferred supplier for power plants and equipment as India seeks to ramp up its power sector.

Irked by rebuff to envoy, India cancels Nath’s China trip

After Tibetan protesters breached police security in the Chinese embassy in New Delhi on Friday, the Chinese foreign ministry summoned Indian ambassador Nirupama Rao at 2am to protest.

Although New Delhi found the action objectionable and avoided getting into a war of words with Beijing, it has made its resentment known by getting Nath to call off his planned visit to China.

The summoning of Rao at 2am, ostensibly to hand over details of plans drawn by Tibetans to organize more protests in India, has been interpreted by China analysts like Bhaskar Roy as a “deliberate snub”. “Beijing’s behaviour suggests an arrogant, threatening attitude,” Roy said.

India, however, does not want to escalate tensions beyond registering a protest through the cancellation of Nath’s trip.

This became evident when national security adviser M K Narayanan said the government would ensure the safety of the Olympic flame as it travelled through India. Talking to reporters, Narayanan said: “We will ensure the Olympic flame travels safely throughout India. All safety measures will be taken.”

The assertion came in response to the bogey raised by the Chinese that India may be unable to ensure safe passage of the flame through its territory, given the large number of Tibetan protests that have taken place here.

Unwarranted Over-reaction

James from Australia….

In 1998 we started our tea business and Sameer Pruthee from Calgary, Canada, was our first export client with a 6 kilo sample consignment. Thru him we came to know of Tim Grover of Cargo & James based in Edmonton, Canada, who later became our close associate and friend.

James McKinnon was one trainee with Cargo & James who travelled to China & India in 1999 to do the indepth study of tea industry. He was from Australia and has a big dairy there in Victoria and later on eventually settled there after getting married to his Canadian girlfriend.

When James was in China, he visted Hunan Tea Company based in Changsha and became friendly with Lena Zhou, who was a sales executive at that moment in Hunan Tea. In India later he introduced us to Chinese teas, of which we never had any knowledge or exposure.

By a quirk of fate we were asked by Indian Tea Board to participate in China Tea Expo in October 2004 in Beijing where Hunan Tea Company put Lena Zhou in charge of us to help understand China, since we had started importing chinese teas from them.

There was no looking back after that. I met Lena recently in Changsha in May 2007, she is now happily married to her boyfriend and they have a cute little daughter.

We wish everybody mentioned here all success and happiness in their lives. Afterall the world is only round..

 Darjeeling tea industry to get export zone tag

After nearly a four-year wait, the Darjeeling tea industry is about to get agri-export zone (AEZ) status. Union minister of state for commerce Jairam Ramesh will ink an MoU with the West Bengal government on March 20 which will finally enable the 87 tea estates in Darjeeling to access a number of central and state government schemes to improve productivity and earn better revenues through value addition.

The Rs 212.65-crore agri-export zone in Darjeeling will be set up with assistance from Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda), which, in conjunction with various state governments and private agencies, have set up 60 such AEZs in 20 states across the country. West Bengal has five AEZs, which are at various stages of development for mangoes, potatoes, litchis, pineapple and vegetables.

“Though the AEZ for tea was sanctioned way back in September 2004 by the steering committee of the ministry of commerce, there were many procedural delays, including the role of various agencies involved in the process. This delayed the process,” said senior tea industry officials.

Darjeeling Tea Association chairman Sanjay Bansal said: “Unlike special economic zones, an AEZ does not comprise a physically defined area, but is an amalgamation of various schemes of the central and state governments for a particular commodity. This includes export incentive, incentives for value-addition, schemes related to irrigation among others. This will give a fresh fillip to Darjeeling tea exports.”

Incidentally, India produces 10 million kg of Darjeeling tea. Out of this, nearly 50% comprises first and second flush teas that are sold at a premium in the export markets mainly in the UK, Japan, Germany and other European nations.

The tea AEZ will entail an investment of Rs 212.65 crore, of which Rs 51.77 crore would flow from various central government agencies and Rs 4.45 crore from the state government, with the likely private sector investment placed at Rs 156.42 crore.

The AEZ proposal also estimates that the tea AEZ during the first five years would have exports worth Rs 673.75 crore and over 5,000 farmers are likely to be benefited from this zone.

 Forum of Tea Production and Consumption in China

May 12-13, 2008

Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, P. R. China

Http://www.faotea18.cn

Sponsor: Ministry of Agriculture, The People’s Republic of China

Organizer: Tea Science Society of China

Co-organizer: Tea Culture Research Association of China

Introduction

By kind invitation of the Government of the People’s Republic of China, the Eighteenth Session of the Intergovernmental Group (IGG) on Tea of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will be held in Hangzhou during May 14 – 16, 2008. In order to give an overview of tea industry in China, the Forum of Tea Production and Consumption in China will be held at the same venue during May 12-13, 2008, just before the 18^th IGG’s tea Session.

Venue and Provisional Program

The forum and exhibition will be held at the same venue as the 18th IGG’s tea session:

The New Century Grand Hotel, No.818 Middle Shixin Road, Xiaoshan, Hangzhou 311202 Zhejiang province P. R. China

Contacting information

Any enquiry about the forum may be addressed to:

Ms. Yang Zhenwei, Tea Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Yunqi Road 1, Hangzhou 310008, Zhejiang province, P. R. China

Fax: +86-571-8665 0056 Email: Conference@mail.tricaas.com Http://www.faotea18.cn

DETAILS OF THE NEW VENUE FOR THE 22^nd MEETING OF ISO/TC 34/SC 8 HANGZHOU, CHINA,

31^st March – 2^nd April, 2008

We have been informed by Mr. Zhang Lin, Director General, Department of International Cooperation, SAC (Chinese member body of ISO), that it will not be possible to hold the ISO/TC 34/SC 8 meeting in Ya’an City.

Ya’an City and Sichuan Province, in common with many other areas in China, have suffered very heavy falls of snow with transportation, electricity supplies and the communication infrastructure severely disrupted.  This has made the hosting of an international meeting very difficult and has led to SAC asking that we change our meeting location to an area not affected by the severe weather.

The new venue of the meeting will be Hangzhou City in Zhejiang Province (known as the hometown of Chinese green tea).

Is this a real reason of sudden shift, since the snow stroms came in February whereas Tibet protests happened in March 2008.

Export performance of Indian Tea in 2007…

Eighty first Annual General Meeting of Terai India Planters Association was held here where Sri Ashok Narayan Bhattacharya, our West Bengal Government Minister presided and it was read out by Sri Rajat Sengupta, current Chairman, that there is a significant downfall in exports.

Nobody dares talk of statistical percentages or the real reasons of this downfall of this shameful act.

I was invited on the podium and put forth my view of the Cost of Governance (CoG) in production of tea in India, which being very high renders our teas uncompititive. Our teas are really good in quality but we are out of race with Sri Lanka, Kenya, China and others due to pure economic and political resons.

And if we have to survive we have to control this.

The inefficient government machinery has to be taken to task and made to perform.

Lets hope for the best. 

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080324/jsp/siliguri/story_9049158.jsp

Holi – the festival of colours…

The colorful festival of Holi is celebrated on Phalgun Purnima which comes in February end or early March. Holi festival has an ancient origin and celebrates the triumph of ‘good’ over ‘bad’. The colorful festival bridges the social gap and renew sweet relationships. On this day, people hug and wish each other ‘Happy Holi’.

Holi celebration begins with lighting up of bonfire on the Holi eve. Numerous legends & stories associated with Holi celebration makes the festival more exuberant and vivid. People rub ‘gulal’ and ‘abeer’ on each others’ faces and cheer up saying, “bura na maano Holi hai”. Holi also gives a wonderful chance to send blessings and love to dear ones wrapped in a special Holi gift.

Indian Black Tea culture centre in Beijing…

Ms. Xiao Juan has sucessfully started her Tea culture centre – her dream project – in her new apartment in Beijing.

Her red sari clad beautiful photographer friend Ms. Xu Yue was an attraction.

Ms. Hao, her manager, presented the green teas during these lectures. 

Her Yoga teacher friend gave discourses on this Indian art, which is a the recent craze in China. Even Chinese Army wished to adopt this art in the Joint Military excercises in Kunming recently.

I wish Ms. Xu could be Indian Mumtaz Mahal, at least with the Darjeeling teas in the wake. Ha ha.

Twinning’s of London

Today, I got the chance to taste Twinning’s of London’s Darjeeling Fanning’s tea bags. Twinning’s was one of the first companies to introduce tea drinking to the English and was established in 1706. In 2006, Twinning’s celebrated supplying the finest teas for three centuries. The found of Twinning’s, Mr. Thomas Twining, first began selling his tea from a small stand in London, which remains till this day. Word of this exotic, new drink quickly spread and soon Twinning’s Tea was de rigueur – Eighteenth century English novelist Jane Austen and Charles II Earl Grey were fans.

Twinnings of London

Mr. Twinning’s pledge to cater exceptional teas for everyone has remained the company’s cornerstone till date and the Twinning family has contributed a lot in establishing tea drinking as the well loved tradition that it is today.

 The first company to introduce tea drinking to the English.

Wow! The packet of the Twinning’s tea bag was very attractive and I decided to give it a try. The pack had Darjeeling written very prominently on it.If you have been reading my earlier posts you must have noticed that I had been drinking a new kind of tea.

The tea box

I tore open the outer envelope of the tea bag and I was very eager to see the quality of the tea used. The tea used in the bag is a Darjeeling Fanning’s which is definitely better than the tea used in either Lipton’s Yellow Label or P. G. Tips.

The tea used in the bag is a Darjeeling Fanning’s.

I infused the tea bag for about 35 seconds and the liquor that was brewed appeared to be dark golden in color. Just as I was about to drink the tea I smelt the sweet aroma of this tea – refreshing! Slowly, I took a sip of this tea and I felt like I was drinking a glass of champagne. Mmmmmmmm – I really enjoyed drinking and making this tea.

Infusion of the tea bag for about 35 seconds.

It was a totally new experience for me as I had never had the opportunity to taste or drink a store bought tea bag before.

A dark golden colored liquor