भारत में चाय के उत्पादन और निर्यात में गिरावट की समीक्षा

India is the world’s second-largest producer of tea after China. The northern part of India is the biggest producer at about 83% of the country's annual tea production in 2021-22. Assam team production is the most followed by West Bengal. The Assam valley and Cachar are the two tea producing regions in Assam. In West Bengal, Dooars, Terai and Darjeeling are the three major tea producer regions.

The southern part of India produces about 17% of the country's total production with the major producing states being Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka. Eighty-five per cent of the tea produced domestically is consumed (1,145 million kg in FY2021) in the country itself.

Indian tea like Assam tea, Darjeeling tea and Nilgiri, recognized for their strong flavor’s and intense aromas, are popular among the finest flavours in the world. India is the fourth-largest exporter (12 percent of global exports) after Kenya (28 per cent), China (19 per cent), and Sri Lanka (14 per cent). Tea worth $704.36 million was exported overseas in FY21.  

Recently, the exports of tea from India registered a decline of around 14.4% in the first seven months (January-July) of 2021 as compared to the same period in 2020. Total exports during January to July of 2021 were 100.78 million kilograms as against 117.56 million kilograms in the same period of 2020.

There was a decline in export of tea in last few years. Reportedly, this was due to no availability of containers, dislocation in shipping schedules, lock-down and uncertainty in the market due to covid-19 and disruptions in overall global trade.

Reasons of Decline Tea Production in India

1. Old Age of Tea Bushes

Most of the bushes have passed their age limit. They are mostly 80 years old, with many over 100years. After uprooting these bushes, yield/hectare has reduced drastically.

2. Decline in Availability of Workforce

Now a days, workers do not opt for working in the Tea Gardens the decreasing trend of availability of Workforce has affected the plucking rounds and thus the quality.

3. Difficulty in Introduction of Mechanization

Tea is a Labour intensive Industry. 60%-70% of the total work force is engaged in Plucking. Though hand plucking involves a huge cost, it gives better quality than machine plucking. Introduction of mechanization is a big challenge in this industry.

4. Lack of Quality Monitoring Mechanism

Tea being a high value crop throughout the world, its quality plays a significant role in its market ability. Currently, organoleptic methods such as inspection by human sensory panel, and instrument based approaches such as gas chromatography and colorimetric method have been reported as the quality monitoring tools in various stages of tea processing. These methods are time consuming, laborious, expensive and sometimes inaccurate.

5. Climate Change

Due to the ill effect of climate change, the bushes are taking more stress and this the quality of tea has been deteriorating gradually.

6. Temporary loss of Iran market

The temporary loss of the Iran market is also a big blow for Indian tea exports. "Nobody is aware why Iran has stopped placing orders of Indian tea. After the CIS block, Iran has been the second largest importer with around 28 million kg of average annual orders. Exports to Iran, which was once a big buyer of Indian tea, was lower due to the sanctions by the U.S.

7. Non-Availability of Container

The other prime reason is non-availability of shipping containers which have become very expensive during the Covid times.

Losing the leadership position

From a leadership position in the International Markets up to 1991, India has lost her market share in the International Market to Sri Lanka, Kenya, and China. A major loss of her market share occurred in the case of the former USSR, where India had occupied an almost monopolistic position from the 1960s to 1990. Since the late 1990s, some recovery in the export volume has occurred, but generally tea exports from India have been on a declining trend over the last two decades.

Kenya was the world’s largest tea exporter with exports of 383 million kg during 2008, followed by Sri Lanka with exports of 299 million kg, China with exports of 297 million kg and India with exports of 203 million kg. The major destinations for Kenyan exports in 2008 included Egypt, Pakistan, UK, and Sudan. China’s exports of 297 million kg in 2008 were primarily to Morocco, Uzbekistan, USA and Japan. Green tea dominated China’s exports, with estimated exports of 230 million kg in 2008.

In spite of accounting for around 26% of world’s tea production, India accounts for only 12% of Worldʹs Tea exports. Of late, India’s international competitiveness in tea exports is seen to be on the decline with decline in her share in world exports. From being a pre‐eminent supplier of tea in the world, India has lost ground in virtually every export market.

Poor performance of export of tea by India

1. Lower production
2. Collapse of some major markets such as Iraq
3. Increase in production in some major competing countries such as Kenya and Turkey
4. Switchover of major buying countries back to their preferred supplier countries such as the UK and Pakistan from Kenya.

Unfavorable age profile of significant proportion of India’s tea gardens:

This, it is pointed out, has resulted in lower productivity, and higher cost of production. India’s exports are dominated by CTC tea, where it is facing increased competition from Kenyan tea. Kenya’s tea business is generally characterized by younger age profile of bushes, higher yields, lower cost of production, and lower prices.

Tariff and non‐tariff measures:

These have been imposed by some tea importing countries. Lower off take by Russia due to change in consumer preferences, and lower production of orthodox teas, which have a larger demand worldwide, are cited as other causes for the decline. This has resulted in the emergence of Sri Lanka and Indonesia as major exporters, primarily because of their ability to supply good quality orthodox tea, it has been pointed out.

Changing consumer preferences:

Traditionally, loose standard BT (Broken Tea) was the most common format of consumption and import. However, since the 1990s, changing consumer preferences in major importing countries such as the UK and Russia have resulted in higher growth for tea bags vis‐a‐vis loose tea. In Russia, tea bags are preferred by the working class, and consumption in this form has grown. This has favored Sri Lankan tea in Russia.

Shift in India’s production:

The shift in production from orthodox to CTC tea is cited as another cause. By comparison, other competing countries have continued to produce their respective traditional types of tea, maintaining consistency of type of supplies to their export destinations.

Decline in quality:

This, it is said, has been caused by mushrooming BLFs (Bought Leaf Factories) which produce cheap-quality tea by buying and processing green leaf from small growers. The growing share of poor quality of Tea produced by these players, it is said, not only affects the domestic price levels, but also damages the quality perception of Indian tea in the export markets. Further, blending of Indian teas with cheaper varieties and export of the same as Indian tea, has also impaired the quality perception.

Spurious varieties:

It is pointed out that lower quality of teas are often passed on as Darjeeling tea. Because of its proximity, some Darjeeling tea producers are bringing in green leaves from gardens in Nepal and selling them as ‘Darjeeling tea’, thereby jeopardizing the geographical indication value of Darjeeling tea.

Lack of marketing initiatives:

Lack of marketing initiatives is said to have led to the industry’s failure to penetrate new markets and secure preferential duty treatment from countries. The lack of competition in the earlier days, remunerative prices in the domestic markets and buoyant export off take from CIS, provided little incentive to the Indian tea industry to develop alternative export markets. In contrast, Sri Lanka has been aggressively marketing its produce and penetrating markets, in which it earlier had little presence.

Duty-free imports from neighboring estates like Nepal

So many imports from neighboring estates like Nepal in illegal, ways this is also one major reason for decline. Recently, the exports of tea from India registered a decline of around 14.4% in the first seven months (January-July) of 2021 as compared to the same period in 2020.

The industry compares the current year with the pre-pandemic 2019 since 2020 is considered more as a year of aberration year due to the steep decline in production due to Covid induced lockdown during the peak plucking months, and the sharp surge in prices. While the data for November and December are still not available on the Tea Board website, industry, however, estimates an overall decline of around 40-45 kg this calendar year.

Authors:

Ekramul Ali Ansari¹, Ankit Kumar Pandey*¹, Kamal Pandey¹ and Sanjeev Kumar¹

¹School of agriculture, Sanskriti University, Mathura

*Email address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.