New Delhi: The capital of India witnessed the 1st Delhi Tea and Coffee Festival 2013, a 3 days festival was held at Hotel Ashoka, New Delhi and inaugurated by Ambassador of Belarus Mr. Vitaly A . Prima. On the inaugural speech, Vitaly A Prima said “The republic of Belarus is privileged to be the focus country of the first edition of the Delhi Tea & coffee Festival 2013. Speaking about the prospects of the long –term collaboration between Belarus and India, I would like to highlight some figures shoeing the nature of the bilateral trade. In 2012, gross trade turnover reached 500 million U.S dollars. Belarusian exports to India – 260 million U.S. dollars per year. Just to compare _ annual Sri Lankan tea export turnover to Belarus is more than 9 million U.S. dollars.

I think that Indian tea entrepreneurs have vast prospect in Belarusian market. We invite Indian tea business to invest in Belarus , including establishment of joint venture to produce and promote you product to the whole customs Union market . It is a great advantages to invest in Belarus.

Continuing it Ms. Sonali Subudhi, Founder, Delhi Tea and Coffee Festival talked about the event and shared “Quite for some time now, the need was felt for a trade event of International standard comprising of tea, coffee and auxiliary products in northern India. With the support of The Tea board of India, Address India Concepts and services is attempting to fill the void. The goal of this event goes beyond supporting the good hard work being done by various government organizations since long in promoting Indian tea and coffee globally by (1) public and private sector collaborative participation and (2) Inclusion of youth of this country (i.e. young taste buds and emerging affluent section of society due to noticeable economic prosperity in last decade).

Our focus goes beyond expanding the Tea/Coffee market. We also aim to enrich the way tea/coffee drinks are produced, made, served and consumed in this part of world through our tea and coffee tasting session”.

The event was graced by Joydip Biswas (Director, Tea Board of India), R. C. Agarwal (Vice Chairman, Federation of Tea Traders Association of India), V. R. Gowda (Officer of supply duty, Coffee Board of India), Ms. Sonali Subudhi (Founder, Delhi Tea and Coffee Festival), Dr. Ashok Sahu (Ex. Planning Commission Advisor), Mr. Sachen Verma (SVP, JV Gokal & Co.), Mr. Raj Sharma (Head Expert- Nestle –South Asia Region) and other prominent people from Tea and Coffee Industry.