• Indian Tea Association and Goodricke Group Each Name New Heads | Nilgiris’ INDCOServe Will Convert Kattabettu Factory into Tea Tourism Hub

    By Aravinda Anantharaman | Managing Editor

    India Tea News for the week ending 15 March 2024
    India Tea News | March 15, 2024
    KATTABETTU INDCO TEA FACTORY, KATTABETTU. Established in the year 1976
    Kattabettu INDCO Tea Factory, established in 1976, was recently refurbished.

    ITA & Goodricke Group Announce Appointments

    The Goodricke Group has appointed Arun Narain Singh as the Managing Director and CEO, effective March 6, 2024. This appointment follows the resignation of Atul Asthana last month. Mr Singh has held this position and most recently has been Founder Trustee of Tea Vision, an industry think tank building a common platform for multiple stakeholders in the tea industry and to be the industry’s voice.

    The National Committee of the Indian Tea Association (ITA), meeting on March 12, announced the appointment of Hemant Bangur of Shri Vasupradha Plantations as Chairman, Suneel Singh Sikand, CEO of Rossell Tea, as Vice Chairman, and Atul Rastogi, Director of Luxmi Tea, as Additional Vice Chairman of the Association. Founded in 1881, the Indian Tea Association, headquartered in Kolkata, is India’s oldest organization of tea producers.


    INDCO in the Nilgiris Gets a Tourism Boost

    Tea tourism comes into focus in the south as well. In the Nilgiris, INDCOServe tea cooperative is set to receive Rs 7.4 crore (approx USD 900,000) to convert its Kattabettu tea factory into a tea tourism hub under the Tamil Nadu Innovation Initiatives plan. The funds will be used to create a living tea museum that will house various tea plants and allow visitors to see how tea is made and taste different teas. Both tea and tourism are essential to the economy of the Nilgiris, and this move is seen as a boost to that. INDCOServe is the largest tea cooperative in the country, with 30,000 small farmer members and 16 factories in the Nilgiris.

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  • Sailing Through the Tea Doldrums | India Budgets a Big Increase for its Tea Industry | Crude Tea Production in Japan Declined in 2023

    Sailing Through the Tea Doldrums | India Budgets a Big Increase for its Tea Industry | Crude Tea Production in Japan Declined in 2023

    Tea News Recap | March 8, 2024

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    FAO Composite Tea Prices (2000-2023)
    FAO Composite Tea Prices (2000-2023)

    Sailing Through the Tea Doldroms

    By Dan Bolton

    Slack sails signaled trouble for sailors plying the trade routes of yore.  The Intertropical Convergence Zone, known by sailors as the doldrums, describes a monotonous, windless passage. This is a helpful metaphor describing the past 25 years of tea exports. Like the converging trade winds, the impact shifts with the seasons and location, but the overall drag on productivity, resources, and profits is global.

    The Tea Association of India warns these times signal a return to the “dark phase.”

    Ajay Jalan, president of the Tea Association of India (TAI), cited stagnant prices, oversupply, a widening gap between demand and supply, and a “race to the bottom” for cheaper teas.

    Speaking to delegates at the association’s annual meeting, he was quoted in The Hindu, saying, “The economic strides made by our nation are indeed commendable, yet the tea industry is currently experiencing challenges reminiscent of the dark phase two decades ago.” Twenty-two years ago, India’s tea industry experienced a severe downturn until 2007 (when a global recession extended the pain).

    India is not alone. China’s tea export value declined by 16% to $1.74 billion in 2023 (down by $343 million), falling below $2 billion. China’s export value fell by 9.6% in 2022. Export volume remains low in Sri Lanka, but tea value rose to $1.3 billion in 2023. After exports fell to $940 million in 2022, Kenya was the only top five tea producers to show gains in volume and value. Export earnings rose 31% to a record $1.24 billion in 2023. Export volume grew by 72.5 million kilos year-over-year to 523 million kilos.

    Record volume, but the price per kilo for auctioned tea averages hovered around $2.25 per kilo — well below 2022 when prices peaked at $2.74 per kilo.

    World Tea Exports
    World Tea Exports
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  • Bihar Tea Gets Trademark | Microsoft’s Bill Gates Unwittingly Promotes Chai and Chaiwala | Muskan Khanna Earns a Patent for Her Nilgiri Bamboo Tea

    By Aravinda Anantharaman | Managing Editor

    India Tea News for the week ending 8 March, 2024
    India Tea News | March 8, 2024
    Courtesy: Amul India

    Bihar Tea Moves Closer to the Mainstream

    Bihar, a state that borders Bengal, has been designated as a non-traditional tea area since 1998 and has just been awarded a trademark by the Indian government. The trademark provides for better protection for goods and services.

    Bihar today has 56,000 hectares – mainly in the Kishanganj district – in tea cultivation and produces over 45,000 metric tons of raw tea leaves annually. In 2020, tea was identified as a focus area under the Bihar Agri Investment Policy (2020). Under the Bihar Tea Development Scheme (2023), tea producers are eligible for a 50-90% subsidy on tea cultivation. The state is keen to expand the area under tea farming. Leading the tea movement here is Doke Tea by Rajiv Lochan, who has been producing artisanal tea for the last decade.


    Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates Unwittingly Promotes Chai

    Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was in India last week and introduced his trip with a video on chai! Now famous as “One Chai Please,” it shows Gates walking up to a chaiwala and commenting that innovation abounds here, even in how chai is made. This video on Gates’ Instagram handle has garnered 7.6 million likes, besides making the chaiwala, Sunil Patel, who goes by the name Dolly Chaiwala, famous overnight.

    Watch the video here.


    Tea Studio Gets Patent for its Nilgiri Bamboo

    Muskan Khanna, of the boutique Tea Studio in the Nilgiris, won the patent for her tea, Nilgiri Bamboo, described as a green tea made using only the internode between the terminal bud and the first leaf of a tea shoot. The patent comes after five years of work. Khanna runs The Tea Studio in the Nilgiris as a women-only company producing bespoke specialty tea. In a social media post, Muskan’s father, tea veteran Indi Khanna, said that this patent is second in tea making, following the patent for the Rotorvane in the 1960s granted to the TRI.

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  • Tata Tea Under Scrutiny | India Mandates Sale of All Tea Dust at Auction | Atul Asthana Resigns as MD and CEO of the Goodricke Group

    By Aravinda Anantharaman | Managing Editor

    India Tea News for the week ending 1 Mar 2024

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    India requires all dust grades to be sold at auction
    India requires all dust grades and 50% of the leaf and broken leaf teas to be sold at auction

    Tata Tea Under Scrutiny Again

    Shantha Chhetri, a former parliamentarian from Kurseong, has written to the offices of the Prime Minister of India and the Commerce Minister, raising concerns about Tata Consumer Products’ consumer packs. She said the company blends its tea with those from Nepal, which is unsafe for consumption and does not meet safety standards. She has urged the food safety regulator, FSSAI, and the Tea Board to test their tea for MRL levels of banned pesticides. The company responded that they do not import directly from Nepal. And that any Nepalese tea in blends is sourced from Indian traders. Tata explained that their teas are rigorously tested within the company and are deemed safe. In 2021, Tata Tea and Darjeeling were at loggerheads when the Tea Board prohibited blending imported teas with GI-protected Darjeeling, Assam, Kangra, and Nilgiri teas. A year later, this ban was lifted. The Telegraph


    Indian Government Requires 100% of Dust to be Sold at Auction

    The amendment of the Tea (Marketing) Control Order, 2003, will come into force from 1st April 2024. One of the directives is that 50% compulsory sale of tea and 100% sale of dust grades must be sold through public auctions starting 1st April. This order is targeted at estates in North India, including Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal. Dust grades account for 25% of Assam and West Bengal tea production. Retail prices for CTC dust are currently Rs 160 to Rs 190 per kilogram (IndiaMART). The move is thought to support greater compliance of tea towards boosting exports. The mandate does not apply to many small-volume mini-tea factories. Industry stakeholders are divided in their opinion on this new move.


    Atul Asthana, MD, Goodricke Group Resigns

    Atul Asthana, Managing Director and CEO of The Goodricke Group Ltd., has resigned after 39 years with the company. The Goodricke Group includes 18 storied gardens, including Thurbo, Badamtam, Barnesbeg, Nonaipara, and Hope across Darjeeling, Assam, and the Dooars. Asthana led the company to years of profitability, retaining its position as a top producer in the tea market. Asthana also actively supports the tea industry and is currently Chairman of the Indian Tea Association. The decision to resign, he has said, was for personal reasons.



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  • Unveiling the Origins of Assam Tea

    Assamica is one of five distinct tea populations
    Assamica is native to several Asian countries and was introduced in South America.

    Assamica is One of Five Distinct Genetic Tea Populations

    Kew Royal Botanic Gardens
    The Assamica specimen was collected in 1949 for Kew Royal Botanic Gardens.
    Assamica leaf
    Assamica leaf
    Camellia Sinensis Sinensis
    Camellia Sinensis Sinensis
    Sice-by-side comparison of Assamica and C. Sinensis Sinensis
    Side-by-side comparison
    Hear the Headlines | Seven-minute Tea News Recap | Episode 156

    News You Need to Know. Now.

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