Islamabad, Aug 13 (INP): Tea industry in Pakistan is facing huge challenges while China showing an upward trend in its growth, say a report published by Gwadar Pro on Thursday. Quoting a Canadian scholar Dan Bolton. the report says the trading volume of Pakistan in this sector is decreasing sharply in recent years, especially in 2020. The economic downturn in Europe, Japan and America has also threatened Pakistan's tea industry. Dan Bolton, founder of the magazine Tea Journey, stated in his latest report that tea industry of China is bucking the trend while global tea market has showed a vulnerability facing COVID-19 epidemic. “Pakistan is a main tea market with a huge import volume, ranking 47th in the world, spending $21m on tea in 2019”, he analysed in the report, “The global economy will continue to decline for a long time, which will impact the innovation and product quality of the tea industry.” The global economic downturn is causing the situation of tea industry worse. "The biggest threat is that people fail to address the medium - and long-term challenges faced by tea industry,” said Nigel Milliken, President of the European Specialty Tea Association. "We need to realign the economy with a reasonable sense of urgency so that tea industry can move out from stuck of labour shortages, land degradation, water shortages and rising input costs," Milliken said. Global tea trades have fallen by an average of 12.8% since 2015. According to Daniel Workman, an analyst at the world's top tea export company, the volume of global tea trade totalled just $6.4 billion in 2019. Among them, with sales of $2 billion, and accounting 31.8%, China is leading foreign trade of tea until today. Bolton said that tea industry of China is bucking the trend and leading global tea industry in post-epidemic era. China has discovered a new mode of tea consumption that investors pay attention on contactless transaction, such as home delivery service and automatic tea vending machine. Bolton said, China's tea industry is bouncing back quickly, as the impasse over the epidemic in China has largely been resolved. Therefore, tea industry in China provides new methods and more potentials for other countries which have been severely affected by COVID-19, the report added. INP/javed