KOLKATA: India's tea industry is trying to take advantage of the nation's free trade agreement with Chile to push premium orthodox tea in the South American country which now gets its supplies from Argentina and Sri Lanka The industry is also making an effort to strengthen its trade ties with the US where Indian tea is witnessing increasing demand. At present, the US imports 14 million kg of tea from India annually and the aim is to nearly double that in five years. India's tea exports totalled 222.45 million kg in 2016. In the first four months of 2017 India exported 73 million kg of tea compared with 69 million kg a year earlier.A high-level delegation from the tea industry is visiting the US and Chile to showcase Indian tea among leading buyers in those markets. Indian tea trade is scheduled to meet key US buyers like Henry P Thomson, Marlin Bayer , Haelssen & Lyon North America and Spire Tea. A meeting with the US Tea Association has also been lined up.“Geo political disturbance in the Middle East, economic upheaval in Russia and procedural and payment issues in Iran are creating problems for the orthodox tea industry. So we are trying to make inroads in Chile which is a 23 million kg market.Chile imports 11 million kg of tea from Argentina and the rest from Sri Lanka.“ “Now we have an FTA with Chile which will further help us,“ Patra said.