(Tue, Oct 18 2011, LiveMint)-0-The Tata group plans to grow tea in Ethiopia and is working towards setting up an automobile assembly plant in Mozambique as it seeks to expand business interests in Africa.
The group, owner of the Tetley tea brand, has approached Ethiopian authorities with a proposal to venture into tea farming in the landlocked country, said Esayas Kebede, director of Ethiopia’s agriculture and rural development ministry.
“We are in communication. We have regions in Ethiopia that are suitable for tea cultivation, as you have regions such as Assam,” Kebede said in an interview in Hyderabad, where he attended an India-Africa business conference. Cheap land and labour costs in Africa are attracting Indian companies with business interests in agriculture, particularly pulses and edible oils.
India imports around 8 million tonnes (mt) of edible oil worth Rs.26,000 crore every year and 3.5 mt of pulses valued at Rs.14,175 crore.
Mint reported on 19 October that state-owned trading firm MMTC Ltd, Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd (Iffco) and Bharti Enterprises plan to join the list of Indian companies engaged in commercial farming in Africa.
Bilateral trade between India and Africa rose from $25 billion (around Rs.1.2 trillion) in 2006-07 to $53.3 billion in 2010-11 as both exports to and imports from the continent swelled, according to a report prepared by the Export-Import Bank of India for the lobby group Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. In Ethiopia, around 70% of 40,000 hectares allocated for contract farming has gone to Indian companies, said Kebede. FULL ARTICLE AT Live Mint »
The group, owner of the Tetley tea brand, has approached Ethiopian authorities with a proposal to venture into tea farming in the landlocked country, said Esayas Kebede, director of Ethiopia’s agriculture and rural development ministry.
“We are in communication. We have regions in Ethiopia that are suitable for tea cultivation, as you have regions such as Assam,” Kebede said in an interview in Hyderabad, where he attended an India-Africa business conference. Cheap land and labour costs in Africa are attracting Indian companies with business interests in agriculture, particularly pulses and edible oils.
India imports around 8 million tonnes (mt) of edible oil worth Rs.26,000 crore every year and 3.5 mt of pulses valued at Rs.14,175 crore.
Mint reported on 19 October that state-owned trading firm MMTC Ltd, Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd (Iffco) and Bharti Enterprises plan to join the list of Indian companies engaged in commercial farming in Africa.
Bilateral trade between India and Africa rose from $25 billion (around Rs.1.2 trillion) in 2006-07 to $53.3 billion in 2010-11 as both exports to and imports from the continent swelled, according to a report prepared by the Export-Import Bank of India for the lobby group Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. In Ethiopia, around 70% of 40,000 hectares allocated for contract farming has gone to Indian companies, said Kebede. FULL ARTICLE AT Live Mint »
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