Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, Üstün stated that a tea-smuggling trade had built up from Turkey’s eastern neighbors, and that the lower prices stemming from smuggled tea were ruining the Turkish tea market. He added that the 145 percent tax on imported tea was making it increasingly attractive for smugglers to bypass legal ways of importing. Üstün said 50,000 tons of tea are smuggled into Turkey on a yearly basis but that only 5,000 tons of tea are imported legally and sold to consumers for nearly four times the price importers see. Some 200,000 tons are produced within Turkey’s borders.
Üstün called for the government to draft a tea law to create a commodity exchange for tea, as this would mean that all the tea produced would have to be sold through the exchange -- in theory eliminating smuggling through recorded transactions.
According to data from the Customs Enforcement General Directorate, the amount of smuggled tea confiscated increased by a factor of 66 between 2008 and 2009 -- an increase from 26.7 tons in 2008 to 1,739.1 tons last year. This amounted to a market value of TL 21 million, and TL 29 million in lost government revenue.
