India's Tea Exports Drop 12.43% in First Nine Months Amid Revised Factory Guidelines Pause

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Less that a month after its notification, the Tea Board of India has put on hold implementation of the revised guidelines for granting of no-objection certificates (NOC) and registration certificates (RC) for setting up new tea factories and capacity enhancement.

In a statement, the board said implementation of the October 22, 2026 notification regarding revised guidelines shall remain on hold till it completes the internal assessment of the factory installed capacity vis-a-vis green leaf availability etc, or until further notice.

Meanwhile, India's tea export in the first nine months (January - September) of 2026 witnessed a decline by 12.43%, in comparision with the first nine months of the previous year.

While the country exported 184.27 million kg tea between January and September this year, 210.20 mn kg of tea was exported during the same period in 2025, as per the Tea Board's figures.

However, the unit price per kg of tea was marginally higher this year than in 2025. As against Rs 302.01 per kg fetched last year, this year the average unit price per kg of tea was Rs 309.83 per kg - a 2.59% surge over the previous year.

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