Tea Export

There is good news for the tea industry: Indian tea exports have registered an increase of nearly 29 million kg in the nine-month period from January to September 2024 in comparison to the tea exports in the corresponding period during 2023. As prominently reported in the Saturday edition of this newspaper, a latest report of the Tea Board of India has revealed that while India as a whole had exported 161.26 million kg of tea between January and September 2023, the export volume shot up by 28.82 million kg between January and September this year, with the total export volume standing at 190.08 million kg. With the tea board putting the average unit price fetched by the exported tea at Rs 266.45 per kg, the overall foreign exchange earned by the country as a whole has also shot up because of this. While the tea industry as a whole has been currently passing through a difficult phase due to a number of factors, including the unpredictable climate change, the jump in exports has also come at a time when Assam’s—and India’s—tea story has just completed 200 years since its “discovery” in 1823. What is also encouraging is that tea consumption has been steadily increasing at a consistent rate in the country as well as across the globe in the past few years. Reports say that in 2022, India as a whole consumed over 1.16 billion kilograms of tea, which is nearly 30 percent of the world’s entire tea output. It is also pertinent to note that while China continues to remain the largest producer of tea in the world, India is the world’s largest consumer of tea, apart from being the second-largest producer. Industry reports, on the other hand, have highlighted three major factors contributing to the increase in tea consumption, both in India as well as across the globe. While more and more people are becoming more aware of the health benefits of tea, such as reducing cholesterol levels and minimising damage from free radicals, diversification of its products has helped attract more customers, including young people. Across India, on the other hand, an increase in per capita income is said to have had a direct bearing on the increase in tea consumption.