The Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) being the apex body of agricultural research and development in Pakistan is coordinating with international partners to promote research activities. The government of Pakistan and government of Turkey have been actively collaborating in various sectors, particularly agriculture sector.
This was said by Chairman PARC Dr Yusuf Zafar, T.I on the occasion of "Inauguration of Pilot Turkish Black Tea Processing Plant at NTHRI, Shinkiari," said a press release issued here on Wednesday. He further added that, introduction of high value agriculture in Mansehra is a step towards this director wherein tea plantation was introduced to improve farmers' income. PARC has identified some better varieties for promotion to operate this plant according to the future needs.
He said that Tea Processing Plant is installed now having processing capacity of 5 ton/day. He also thanked the team of technicians from Turkey who have already conducted the test run on April 15, 2018. A work plan is being developed by PARC to foster tea R&D activities which will pave the path for further enhancement in this area. At last he said that this plant's inauguration will be a step towards achieving success in commercialization of local tea in Pakistan.
Imdat Sutluoglu, General Manager, CAYKUR, Turkey said that consumption of tea at world level is reached at 4.2 million ton. China is at 1st position with 34% and India with 25%, Srilanka and Kenya are at 9% each and Turkey is at 6th place in the world with 5.3% share having tea production of 22 to 25 thousand ton per year. He said that Turkey had started tea production in 1917 and till 1937 huge tea production took place and more than 20 ton of tea seeds had been imported by Jeogia.
Turkey had started tea export in 1965. He said that CAYKUR was established on 1971 that look after about tea processing and export technology. He said that more than 2 lack metric ton is being used in Turkey and 2.5 lack families are directly attached with this sector.
He said that Turkish people like to taste their own produced tea now and I hope that we should develop our taste according to our own cultivated tea. Dr Anjum Ali, Member PSD, PARC thanked all the guests and delegation headed by Imdat Sutluoglu, General Manager CAYKUR, Turkey. He also briefed about NTHRI institute and also talked about the tea processing plant which is a gift by Turkish Government to enhance tea cultivation process and production in Pakistan.
Dr Hamayun, Sr. Joint Secretary MNFS&R said that Pakistan and Turkey have key relations among themselves and looking towards for bright future in the field of agriculture.
At the occasion Dr Farrukh Syar Hamid, Director NTHRI said that NTHRI is core institute of PARC and it is clarified that Mansehra, Badgram, Swat and Azad-Kashmir are best ecological zones for tea production. Green tea plants had been placed in these areas and later on tasted on different places.
He said that we exported 1800kg green tea to Japan in 2017. He said that if we collaboratively work with Turkish experts on tea production sector than definitely we can save our precious foreign exchange. He briefed that in 2015 a team of TIKA visited PARC and later on CAYKUR team members also visited NTHRI and invited Director NTHRI to Turkey. In Turkey Director NTHRI meets with Turkish President, Tayeb Ordgan and he directed to gift the processing plant machinery to NTHRI. It is now installed and working perfectly.-PR