Johannesburg, July 26 - Having helped promote Indian teas in North Africa with Egypt as a major market, the Tea Board of India is now looking at heading south of the continent through South Africa.

'We are trying to diversify our markets as far as possible,' said Tea Board chairman Basudeb Banerjee at the end of the South African International Trade Exhibition (SAITEX) here.

'For the past five to seven years, India's tea industry has been trying to locate newer markets. Previously we were dependent on markets such as Russia and the UK, but today we have better export markets because of diversification,' Banerjee told IANS.

Maintaining that Indian tea exports to South Africa were 'very meagre' at the moment, Banerjee added: 'South Africans consume about 20 million kilograms of tea of quite high quality annually, so this is an advanced market which we are trying to break into.'

He also identified Egypt as India's biggest market in Africa at the moment, saying exports to that country had risen from two million kilograms four years ago to close to 15 million kilograms.