Govt order against blended ‘cheaters’ may help reclaim glory of Indian tea, halt decline in exports

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New Delhi: The Tea Board of India has passed an order prohibiting the mixing of iconic local varieties like Darjeeling, Kangra and Nilgiris with imported liquor of substandard quality.

This order is expected to boost the export of Indian tea. , One of the country’s most decorated and internationally renowned objects , Which is currently plagued by low local production along with increased imports of cheaper variants for blending.

There is also a huge domestic and international market for many Indian varieties like Darjeeling and Kangra. Geographical Indication (GI) tag recognition.

In the order issued this month, the statutory body functioning under the commerce ministry directed all tea importers to ensure that the origin of tea is mentioned on all their sales invoices. Importers were also barred from presenting imported tea as tea of ​​Indian origin by mixing the two for domestic consumption.

“No registered buyer of tea shall mix any imported tea with tea from Darjeeling, Kangra, Assam (Orthodox) and Nilgiri (Orthodox)…

The order directs the manufacturers of Darjeeling tea not to buy green leaves from outside NS GI area.

Read also: This is Darjeeling’s premium tea, but from Nepal: How ‘fake’ tea threatens India’s pride

Inherent tension in the tea sector

according to tea board statisticsDespite the global recovery between January and August this year, tea exports from India declined by more than 11 per cent. This was followed by a 20 per cent decline in exports to markets such as Russia, the UK and Egypt in 2020.

Moreover, imports have increased by about 34 per cent in the same period, while imports have increased by more than 50 per cent in 2020. The country’s total tea production declined by nearly 10 per cent to 1,257 million kg in 2020 as compared to 2019.

The total production was 1,390.08 million kg in 2019 and 1,338.63 million kg in 2018.

This problem of rising imports and falling exports has been caused by many factors such as fall in production, rise in prices, making the commodity internationally uncompetitive, global export constraints and the blending problem.

Heavy crop loss during lockdown

Indian Tea Association secretary Sujit Patra told ThePrint that “the Covid-19 lockdown disrupted operations for at least two months, leading to heavy crop losses, a nearly 40 per cent decline in quality tea crops like Darjeeling tea. I”.

“This led to an increase in prices, which hit record highs last year. Due to this, our other competitors like Kenya And Sri Lanka, which does not have enough domestic market and hence produces low priced tea, invaded our export markets like Egypt, Russia, UK and other countries,” he said.

“This year also, due to meteorological uncertainties, there was a setback in crop production, leading to a lower production than in 2019. In this October, we produced 55 million kg less than what we produced in 2019,” he said. . “This year, we expect an export decline of 60-6.5 million kg from 2019. Since last year, the availability of containers in the market for exports remains uncertain as freight charges have increased by 500-600 per cent, which is further ahead. hurting exports,” Patra said.

The auction price of the Indian ‘crush, tear, curl’ variety, popularly known as CTC, rose to over Rs 300 per kg in 2020 from Rs 150-180 per kg before the pandemic. This price is still hovering over Rs 200 per kg this year

PK Bezbaruah, chairman, Tea Board of India, said, “Last year we lost more than 10-15 per cent of production, leading to a 30 per cent increase in prices. Exports have declined by 15 per cent and this year it is even worse.

blending hazard

Experts blame tea blending for pushing up imports and declining exports.

Bezbaruah said that some “tea exporters buy tea from elsewhere and mix it with Indian tea and export that blend as Indian tea, which we are trying to make sure that its name from India.” But the tea exported meets the minimum standards.”

“Imports are increasing further as the price of Indian tea has gone up due to fall in demand. This has also hurt the export market because if you mix the product with cheap tea and send it to the customers, it will definitely be closed.

Konenika Bhattacharjee, a Siliguri-based exporter of Darjeeling tea, told ThePrint: “Imports of cheap tea, priced at less than Rs 100 per kg from destinations such as Nepal, Vietnam and Argentina, have risen sharply since last year as domestic prices . shot up.

“The blending of this tea makes it practically impossible to offer a decent or standard tea at these price points. This is affecting the stature of India tea in the global markets as consumers abroad are very conscious about its quality.

Sujit Patra said: “If domestic tea is subject to the norms set by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Imported people should also be brought under it. Records of imported tea should be maintained and that too at the minimum import price. If it is being blended and re-exported, it should be labeled as multi-origin and not as Indian tea.”

(Edited by Gitanjali Das)

Read also: Indian tea is world famous, but our exports still lag behind Kenya, China and Sri Lanka

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