How safe is our cup of tea: An introspection

 The tea cup that cheers everyone has become an integral beverage in our daily routine. Over the past two centuries, tea drinking has turned out to be an addiction for almost 80–85% of the people in our country, and if we happen to work out the quantities of tea that people around the world consume, it comes to over 3.16 billion cups of tea per day. In India, too, it has been estimated that over 1.5 crore normal cups of tea are drunk per day on average. Therefore, it justifies the fact that, next to water, tea drinking is taken as the most sought-after drink among all the people in the world from all walks of life. Undoubtedly, Tea has the superpower of bonding relations, friendships, and solutions to decision-making, while at the same time invigorating oneself with the buildup of strong immunities to fight against any kind of invincible disease. Therefore, tea is called the “ELIXIR’ of life. Scientifically, it has also been amply proven that ‘tea’ contains most of the phytochemical components that a human body needs for the desired longevity of a healthy life.

Tea production in India has shown a remarkable increase in the last 10 years. Two decades ago, productions of tea, which were limited to 700 to 900 million kg, showed a steady increase to over 1200 to 1300 million kg; the latest figure shows over 1380 million kg in 2022. The phenomenal increase has happened because of the huge contributions coming from the segment of small tea growers who are becoming the backbone of the Tea Industry at present. Everyone will be surprised that more than 48% of the total tea production in Assam comes from the green leaves of STGs. Out of 690 million kg of tea produced in Assam in 2022, 300 million kg were contributed by this segment, which is expected to exceed more than 50 to 55% in the near future. Already, the share of STGs’ productions had increased to over 52% of the total productions in India. It is really amazing to find that in the last 4 decades of time (1978–1988), when a handful of Small Tea Growers started tea cultivation on a small scale in Assam as an initiative, that strength has crossed over 1.5 lakh growers covering over 47,370 hectares of land under tea areas and producing over 300 million kg of tea (approx. 1500 million kg of green leaves)! This will remain the best success story in the history of the tea industry in Assam.

Although production-wise the country has achieved a very comfortable growth as compared to other tea-growing countries of the world, it has been observed that the name and fame, the brand equity that we have been able to establish both in domestic and international markets of our teas, especially with reference to teas from Assam, Darjeeling, and Nilgiris in the last few decades, have been slowly eroding in matters of adherence to the desired qualities and food safety measures as per the expectations of the consumers. The export markets have not shown any growth as compared to the other competitive countries; rather, there have been many objections and rejections on the matters of Maximum residue limits of used chemicals, which have compelled us to think seriously about the consumers’ awareness of food safety measures in other developed countries in comparison to our own people at home!

Analysing the gravity of the above matter, the following areas come to mind for sincere attention to be paid by all the tea producers, big and small:

Production of quality teas has not received the desired attention as much as it is required. The average prices of teas at the close of the season in the auction markets of both Kolkata and Guwahati speak very clearly about the quality” our producers have produced over the years. Over 52% of total production comes from the production of teas made from STGs. Almost 90% of these bulk productions coming from BLF are in the bracket of common Medium Assam. Quantity-wise, the BLFs make millions of kg, but for qualities, their teas find it difficult to compare with teas from Estate factories. Since 99% of the BLF owners are simply not connected to the sources of leaf supply, there has been a total lack of ownership or belongingness, which makes them unaware of the growers at the supply sources and whether they are complying with GAPs or applications of chemicals or fertilisers as per the norms of safety measures that are “MUST” for the health of the consumers.

The ill effects of climate change have caused extensive damage to tea crops due to the attack of various pests and diseases, which has created a big concern for the industry’s sustainable production. The use of various chemicals to control sucking pests and diseases conforming to the norms of MRL has been found to be one of the biggest challenges for producers in compliance. Chemicals that have been approved for applications as per the Plant Protection Code (PPC) show the PHI (Plucking hour interval), and to produce quality teas, the plucking of fine leaves with a high percentage of two leaves and one bud is necessary, and this can be achieved only when six- to seven-day-old leaves are regularly plucked. So often, the gap between the plucking and pesticide applications is not maintained, which ultimately results in the residue level of the applied chemicals remaining intact in the tea. Consumers drink tea without being aware of these happenings. Teas with intact of pesticide residue level may not show direct effect on health but in course of time it can bounce back to serious problems of health with many diseases.

Generally, it has been noticed that we are more concerned for our teas to be exported since we know that people in these countries are very health conscious, but very sadly, our tea producers pay the least attention to our 148 crore people who enjoy the cup of tea on a daily routine without knowing whether the cup of Tea’ we drink is free from all toxins!