India mandates that all tea dust must be sold at auction
NETA Opposes 100% Dust Auction
Kamal Jalan, Chairman of The North Eastern Tea Association (NETA), spoke on the challenges facing the Assam tea industry and the way forward. The Association, which held its biennial general meeting in Golaghat, Assam, on March 13, has spoken against the latest government order for 100% of Tea Dust to be sold via the auction system, calling it detrimental to the industry’s survival. They also raised the issue of food safety compliance, calling for greater awareness among small tea growers, increased testing and facilities needed to conduct tests at factories, and a roadmap towards achieving 100% compliance with food safety standards. They also raised the issue of stopping tea production in winter, which is now practiced in north India. The Association has said they do not favor reducing production but instead focus on the generic promotion of tea in the domestic market, aiming for per capita consumption of 1 kilo.
Safe Tea Comes into Focus
Indian tea is seeing a renewed and determined march towards food safety. After coming under constant flak, 2024 opened with the Food Safety Standards Association of India, calling for more compliance and partnering with the tea board to see how this can be effected. It’s good to see it in action. Last week, the FSSAI led a training session in the Nilgiris on safe and hygienic tea production practices for small tea growers. In North Bengal, the domestic certification body Trustea partnered with the association of small tea growers for training on pest control, soil health management, and pesticide use.
India Sends Delegates to Iran
Iran, once a big buyer of Indian tea, has ceased to import the same volumes as before. The Mint reported that tea shipments to Iran have dropped from 54.5 mn kilos in 2019 to 5.2 mn between January and November 2023. Iran is still considered an important export market; a trade delegation is planned to dialogue with Iranian authorities. Shipping disruptions and payment challenges aside, Iran had an internal crisis in November 2023 when tea importer Debsh Tea Company was embroiled in a $3.4 billion embezzlement scandal. India’s tea exports to the UAE dropped 25% from 2022 to 2023.
Jyoti Bharadwaj launched TeaFit in 2021, offering a range of unsweetened iced tea and herbal blends. She has since added unsweetened premixes to the portfolio. For India, a country with a large population suffering from diabetes, she says, unsweetened beverages were needed, and tea offered the perfect vehicle. More recently, Jyoti was featured on Shark Tank India, where celebrity entrepreneurs agreed to invest INRs 50,00,000 rupees (USD $60,000) in the brand. Jyoti talks about functional, condition-specific, and ready-to-drink tea and how her brand is helping tea shed its fussy image.
TeaFit founder Jyoti Bharadwaj Joyti Bharadwaj and family pitch TeaFit on the Shark Tank TV program
Aravinda Anantharaman: Will you share the story of how TeaFit came to be?
Jyoti Bharadwaj: I have had a rather longer route to entrepreneurship. I wasn’t born to be an entrepreneur, nor do I come from a family of business people. We are the typical service-class Indian family that focuses on education and grades, and you become an engineer, get into consulting, and do an MBA, so that’s the route I had for myself as well. So, I am an engineer. And then, I did my MBA from the Indian School of Business. Somewhere in the middle, for a couple of years. I did work in a large IT company. But I think that taught me what I don’t enjoy or am not cut out to do. And thankfully, I learned that fairly early in life. After that, I did my MBA and have been building startups. So, after two successful startups, I was honestly beginning to get a bit bored. Liabilities were taken care of, I had paid off my huge education loan, and I had a nice house in Bombay. And that was pretty much it. I was taken care of in that sense. So that itch to do something meaningful beyond the next job, I think, was gnawing at me a little bit. And also, my kids were really young. I was not enjoying staying away from my young ones for so long every day.
I have traveled to Japan quite a few times. And I really enjoyed the unsweetened beverage space of Japan. And just the pride the Japanese folks, have in traditional cuisines that somehow pick up or resonate from their traditional teas, herbs, and botanicals. And so for every Cola or sugary beverage, you will find in vending machines 20 different types of teas that are made from greens, from oolong tea to matcha, you name it. And I was blown away by the kind of selection there and the access people had to good products or products that are good for you.
When I visited the beverage aisle here back home, there were just three broad categories: Cola, fruit-based/sugar-based beverages, and energy drinks, and somewhere in the middle is where you have to make a choice. The whole game is pinned on the idea the Indian consumer wants things sweet. When you look at the options, they are so limited that you can’t really blame the typical consumer for picking what they do.
Aravinda: So, what is TeaFit all about?
Jyoti: I come from a diabetic family. My parents are diabetic, and I am borderline diabetic. India now has ten crore (100 million) diagnosed diabetics. It’s a serious number, and somewhere I felt that the responsibility lies with irresponsible brands in pushing such products. Mainstream marketing and kind of, making it cool to have this ten times a day, and associating it with aspiration, with happiness, and with, you know, all of the other strokes of marketing. So, like, the seed was there in a way to build something responsible, to build something intentional, where it’s not just less bad for you, things that are good for you that can be bottled up.
There are many herbal recipes from our own Ayurveda. We selected tea as a base to make the blends flavorful and light on the palate and not douse everything with loud flavor and sugar. So that’s where it came from, a very personal place, but I’m glad it found resonance in the larger customer base.
I would also like to say that with all the destruction that COVID caused, I think a small glimmer of hope that it gave everybody was that people got conscious of what they were consuming overnight, and label awareness grew. They wanted to read the back of the label slightly more than they did previously. So if earlier you saw a product that says ‘Good for you,’ or ‘Increases height,’ or ‘Loses weight,’ they would pick it up, but today, they flip the bottle around and see what’s actually there in the nutritional panel. So that’s, in a rather big nutshell, my journey. I’m glad that I’m representing responsible brands in the space, and it’s an absolute privilege to do what I do and to survive the early days of difficult days of the business to be here to be talking to you today.
Aravinda: How difficult was TeaFit to formulate and produce? And what did you have to do to achieve healthful flavor? In India, I also feel that we have become so used to things being slightly exaggerated in flavors, right? More spice, more sweet, deep fried, and we tend to associate those with better taste. I think that’s sort of what we’ve been given. So, on the production side, what did you have to do to ensure you still retain the integrity of what you wanted the product to have without compromising on flavor?
Jyoti: I would like to take a minute to highlight that I was clueless. I was as clueless about the business as the next person on the street. So it did take me longer to figure out. I literally Googled on day one of quitting my job, ‘How do you make iced tea at scale’? Everything started with Google. And then, very soon realized there was no way I could do this myself; I needed to find people who knew more than me playing Einstein. So I would say that whatever success I’ve achieved, I think that’s more to do with the kind of talent I have been able to convince to come on board than being able to solve things quickly myself.
So I researched the top leaders in Ayurveda, who are the product heads of large companies like Himalaya Herbal, and then I went and knocked on their door and begged them to come on board and work on this idea with me. My broad stroke problem statement was that the product we want is a healthy beverage with no sugar and a base in tea. It features herbs blended in combinations that help you fight the stresses of modern life. You’re always on the go; you’re always ordering in food, something that would, you know, that could help you with digestion, that could help you feel light, energizing, that doesn’t add to the sleepiness.
The initial journey was difficult until I found the right people to work with. I feel that when you start out with the right intention, you find good people to work with. So, I would like to highlight a pharma company in the Ayurvedic space they are based in Nashik called Rev Pharma. I was a one-woman army, they could just shut the door in my face, but they didn’t; they respected the idea. And they allowed me and my team to utilize the facility to do the entire product development, do the tinkering on Ayurvedic formulation, and see what kind of extracts we would need. Would we need powdered extracts, liquid extracts, or spray-dried extracts? But we did struggle to come to the right flavor initially in the absence of sugar because first, you take out sugar, then you add, you know, a blend of 15 herbs.
Some herbs are as bitter as noni fruit. I’m not sure how aware you are, but it’s really bitter. You can’t really take even a spoonful of it. We wanted the benefits. We didn’t want the bitterness. That took a lot of time to get right. It did taste bitter for, I think first three productions. And I knew if it didn’t taste great or how good for you it is, nobody’s going to drink it. We added licorice to it, and we added cinnamon to it, which kind of fools your mouth into making the flavor palate a little more rounded, with a faint hint of sweetness. A lot of iterations are what it took for us to get to the product.
We also didn’t want to lose the delicate flavor, the notes of the tea. We use our tea from a single-origin farm in Assam called Zendai Tea Estate and another similar state in Kerala for green tea. Initially, the tea would be too strong, and it would just be very astringent. It would have lost its finer top notes. So then we redid the entire fabrication of the brewing process. The manufacturing plants in India are typically made for either carbonated beverages or they’re made for fruit-based beverages. So for our tea brewing and herb brewing, we had to set up a whole different line wherein you do it outside the filling line at the temperature you want and then introduce the brew into the main filling line. So it did take a while for us to figure it out. Lots of failed experiments where an entire batch was on the floor because the filter got choked. So we’ve also had a journey where because we have done things from the ground up, seen every possible thing that could go wrong, and therefore, you know, we are now doing it right.
Aravinda: So how long did it take from you know the point when you started the R&D and to, say the first batch that you said, Okay, I think we’ve cracked it?
Joyti: Fourteen months is what it took, from the sketch of the product. And I also was a little bit ziddii*, in the sense that I didn’t want to take shortcuts, so I didn’t want a bottle that existed. So this bottle, you see, was designed by the Indian School of Design and Innovation, so it did take me some time to figure out who would do the bottles for us. And when you’re new, you don’t know the limitations of the industry. So I didn’t know that if you have a bottle like this, it’s hard for you to do hot fill because the bottle collapses so I also figured out a lot of things along the way like I said, I’ve made every mistake I could have made, and I am still alive.
Aravinda: That itself calls for congratulations. Why tea? Why was your starting point tea?
Joyti: I felt the kind of products I wanted to make was hard to do in a fruit-based beverage, and power drinks I didn’t want to touch in the beginning because, like I was anti-everything that carbonated drinks stood for. And also like I’m a tea person. I like tea. So it started as a pet project of mine, I used to do it in the kitchen, you know, hibiscus tea, and all sorts of tea, barley tea when I came back from Japan, and people started liking it. So I was like, this is one thing I know how to do. And let me work on this. I also felt like it allowed for the botanicals to find a good home for being effective and finding a synergized flavor. If you put the same thing in juices, it just tastes very off.
My Nanaji (maternal grandfather) used to make black lemon black tea, which is legendary in our whole locality. He’s no more; God bless his soul. But I think I was hooked on that. So the first two or three things I wanted: I wanted his lemon black tea. And also, Aravinda, from a business perspective, the drink itself was alien to the Indian consumer. There was no unsweetened drink per se like there was an odd water or a couple of other drinks like that, but there was no drink with a personality of its own and was unsweetened. So there was a bit of unfamiliarity to begin with. And we didn’t want to make it further unfamiliar, like adding two steps of alienation by creating a flavor that’s not mainstream. We wanted to go with the two most mainstream flavors which are lemon and peach in iced tea, and give that to customers saying, “Look, your lemon and peach iced tea could be this.” So that’s what we wanted to go ahead with, just making it less complex as an introduction or making it less complex to decide on the first purchase, the first trial.
As a business owner, your holy grail is trials and then eventually the beats. So for a bootstrapped brand, if you have to pursue trials, either your packaging has to be phenomenal, the brand has to be really catchy and simple for you to understand, or the product has to be really simple for you to understand. So for all of these reasons, we wanted to keep the complications kind of as minimum as possible. We made lemon black tea, and we did a peach drink tea, and we did barley tea which was something that I personally liked a lot it has immense health benefits, and it will be tragic if people don’t get to try it. These are the three products that we started with.
Aravinda: Would you say health is still the main marketing angle for tea? Do you think people respond to health and wellness as in the marketing conversations, or is it flavor?
Jyoti: As a product-first company, I will say if you don’t have a strong product, no amount of positioning of the product will really get the customer pull. So first, the product has to be incredibly strong, which means it has to check all the boxes. If you ask me what is important – is the health angle important, is the flavor important, is the price point important, is the availability important – I would say all of these four, if they are in place, only then there’s a hope that you know the customer will discover you, will decide to part with his money to try your product. So in my case, I was hell-bent on finding the right flavor. We wanted customers to come for the flavor. You flex on the flavor, you know? Health is something we take care of, it’s something that is in the product, but you come for the flavor.
Even the premixes that we have launched, milk tea premixes, are unsweetened, but if you drink the product, it is phenomenal. We could have put fillers in it or done all kinds of shortcuts to arrive at a cheaper product that probably would appeal to a wider range of audiences. But we didn’t. We were like, this is what we’ll do, we’ll find our consumers, maybe everybody’s not my customer. It’s important to know how wide a net you want to cast because that will determine what kind of product you will develop.
Aravinda: And with marketing, have you relied heavily on online and digital, or have you gone for a bit of both?
Jyoti: We knew that we have to be present in the offline touchpoints, wherever impulse buying happens. And so we our first point of sale was not online or on our website. It was Nature’s Basket stores in Mumbai. We started with a few of them. And in the longer view, if I take a longer view of things, I would say that distribution is probably more important than anything else regarding the beverage business. By that, I mean trade, finding the right channels, setting up distributors, and ensuring your product is available. Because even after Shark Tank, I feel like I lost a lot of customers, or maybe I advertised for my competitors in that sense because our distribution was not there. If somebody in Delhi went to buy a TeaFit after watching us on Shark Tank, we were not available. A lot of marketing without distribution is marketing for the competitor. So we’ve not done a lot of marketing; we are looking to focus on building deeper distribution within Mumbai, within Pune, and then spread radially from there. And online and commerce, we are pretty much everywhere today, on Big Basket, Blinkit, and these platforms. So we want to be wherever the customer is, in the best, most cost-efficient way. And most of our marketing is organic, we do some marketing on the platforms where they’re on. Like, if you’re an Amazon, we’ll do some Marketing on Amazon. And similarly, for the e-commerce platforms, we do some marketing in stores where we are, we do sampling activities.
A big blitz will get you trials, right? It will get your eyeballs, will definitely make people curious, and make them try. But if you don’t have the right product, they will not return. So I always insist that it is not the first PO or the first order that matters, but it’s also the second PO, right? The second order, or, you know, the second time the distributor calls you and says, I need to talk. And those are the real markers of where the business is going.
Aravinda: Tell me about the Shark Tank experience. Why did you choose to go? What happened? How was it? And how has it been post that?
Joyti: I don’t think I chose it. I think it chose me because there were so many people who applied for it. And all great businesses. Many far ahead in the journey than me. In fact, I applied last year, also. I was like two weeks, two months into the business, I had done a sum total of Rs 20,000 in revenue and applied. So the guts were always there. And I did get through all the rounds, even in the first season. But I was traveling when they wanted to come, so I had to skip it. This season, I didn’t apply with any hopes. Honestly, I’ve seen all 85 episodes of Shark Tank to know that it’s almost a fluke that you make it or it’s a stroke of luck. So I would say that probably my story resonated with them. There are a couple of rounds of applications wherein they ask what’s your big vision? What’s the big idea? What is it that you’re building? And if you get shortlisted for a second round, which is also written down but fairly detailed in terms of revenue, product market fit, and your footprints, all of that. And then, you have to submit a three-minute video pitch to them. If they like it, they call you. And that day, I didn’t have any baby care at home. So I took my kids with me on the day of the auditions. So whoever is in the audition must attend the final shoot. So I had to take them on the final shoot even though I was unsure how the kids would behave. But I guess it went well. I am generally not a very camera-friendly person. I prepped for it, and then I went. I had done the business in and out from day one alone. So those answers you will always have, and I felt like that came through well in the show. We got a lot of love. Our phone didn’t stop ringing for weeks. We had 300-350 distributor inquiries overnight; sales skyrocketed, and the website shut down… so all of the good things a business faces, we faced all of that, and it has given us like catapult us into a different stratosphere.
So I was playing at a very small business level, now I would say that, you know, we are fighting bigger problems. I have a bigger team overnight now. I was doing a couple of interns and a friend. Now I’ll have like a legitimate team of people. More than anything, people know about the brand. People know what we do. So the kind of exposure the brand gets makes up for any inhibitions you have as a founder. If you’re a consumer brand, if you’re at a stage where your product is available for people to buy, I think you should absolutely do everything in your power to try and get your 15 minutes on TV.
Aravinda: Are you still riding on the success of that?
Jyoti: It doesn’t sustain in the way, it becomes 100x in the first month, right? And then it slows to 50-60x, but that 5-6x would have taken you that long to get there on your own. Honestly, it’s hard to quantify everything that comes your way. Sales are one way to quantify, but just the number of opportunities that come up… brands like Zepto, Blinkit, and other e-commerce platforms. If I were nobody, which I was before Shark Tank, it would be much harder to get into closed-door conversations like that. And platforms like that, just access becomes a lot easier. I’ve been meeting people like Harsh Mariwala, and just being able to pick their brains for even a five-minute conversation, it’s a whole different mindset that it puts you into. You start to think about what’s possible and think of bigger possibilities for yourself, the brand, and what it can do. And, you know, you start to believe in leapfrogging and not just building brick by brick. This was one such milestone for us.
Aravinda: Do you want TeaFit to be seen as a tea brand? One of the things within the industry I hear is that coffee is cool; tea hasn’t been able to crack that and get younger customers. Something like TeaFit would, I imagine, interest younger people. So how does TeaFit fit into the larger developments shaping Indian tea?
Joyti: So we feel like there’s a ton of scope to make tea cool, and tea associated with the elderly is, I think, an idea of yesterday purely because it has not been presented in the way with the amount of cool as that coffee does. As a tea-drinking country, I feel like there is an absolutely wide open gap to create a brand that is intentional that is responsible that is cool that is that aligns with the value systems of the young buyer today, and we absolutely consider ourselves to be a tea band before you know any other brands so There’s a lot of innovation that we are currently working on, to innovate on different products and incorporate tea in it. Maybe chocolates. We are working on not just a vertical extension of the product but also taking it horizontally and seeing what else we can do with tea and what other products we can incorporate tea into. I feel like we are at a stage where discerning young people want more than traditional cola/ energy drinks. You do see a lot of experimentation in the cocktail space, in the cocktail/mocktail space, the party space, so to speak. I feel like no innovation has happened in the tea and RTD beverages. So we’re glad to be going after that space and building a brand that resonates with the youth and hopefully makes tea drinking as cool as coffee.
| Catchy TV Campaign Promotes Lipton’s New Hard Tea
PLUS Tea Biz travels to Montréal, Quebec, to talk with Nadia de la Vega, director of tea sustainability and content at DAVIDsTEA, a company that fosters a spirit of POSITIVI-TEA which she describes as doing what’s right for both our local communities and global suppliers. Jessica Natale Woollard reports.
International Tea Day Celebrations Expand Globally
Enthusiasm for the United Nations-designated International Tea Day is peaking this year as tea associations, governments, and brands join the May 21 tribute. The global tea industry increased production from 4.3 to 6.5 billion kilos from 2009-2019, enabling tea drinkers to enjoy 8.2 billion cups daily. A few of the many activities are linked below.
The European Speciality Tea Association announced a Zoom fundraiser to support women in tea. Promoted as the world’s biggest sipping event, the online gathering begins at 2 pm (British Summer Time) on Sunday, May 21.
“We plan to invite more than 1000 people worldwide to raise a cup in unison to celebrate this amazing beverage generating 1000 pounds sterling before and during the event to empower women in tea management. Women have been marginalized in the tea-making process and other management leadership roles within the tea industry, and we want to be a catalytic force to initiate change there. The hour-long event will be recorded for viewing on demand. Visit www.specialityteaeurope.com to register.
Line up
Paola Cruz is a wellbeing influencer @practicewithpaola will talk about tea and wellbeing and how to infuse this in your life.
Virginia Lovelace, author and tea scientist, will talk about improving your tea experience at home.
Nepal tea collective sisters will talk about their life in tea.
Muskan Khanna will talk about being one of the youngest women tea makers.
Madelaine Au will talk about organizing a successful tea event in Oregon.
Lucy (Mynt Mynt) Shwe from Mother’s Love Tea in Myanmar will speak about the uniqueness of Burmese tea culture.
Bernadine Tay from Quinteassential is a Founding Director of the European Speciality Tea Association and will host and moderate the event.
ARGENTINA Expo Té Argentina, in Posadas, Misiones, is a three-day event marking the 100th anniversary of commercial tea production. The event is May 25-27 and includes garden tours, a tea business conference, an exposition, and a tea fair. Learn more…
• Tea product business round: May 26 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. • Expo May 25 and 26 from 4 to 9 pm • Tour with Producers of the enterprises: May 27
BELGIUM The Chinese Tea Culture Center in Antwerp will host a tea meditation and tea circle from 3-6 pm on Sunday, May 21. The Belgium Chinese Tea Culture Association is a non-governmental and not-for-profit culture association whose mission is to promote peace, harmony, and respect for the ECO nature and humanity in society through tea and tea serving.
CANADA The Tea and Herbal Association of Canada will host its 4th annual Sofa Summit on Friday, May 19, from 8:30 am to 7:30 pm (Eastern Daylight Time). Join THAC President Shabnam Weber for 11 hours of conversations with tea experts, tea association representatives, and growers worldwide.
UNITED STATES The inaugural Eugene Tea Festival will be held at the Farmer’s Market Pavilion in Eugene, Oregon, from 10 am to 4 pm (Pacific Daylight Time). Organizers invite participants to enjoy tea tastings, educational workshops, and a vibrant marketplace. Learn more…
Teeverband board member Annemarie Leniger explained the ambitious goals of the industry: “Teas, in all their diversity, are not only part of a highly developed culture of enjoyment, but they are also becoming increasingly important as a valuable, natural food in this country. As a commodity, tea builds bridges between the continents, connects young and old tea fans, and should further promote economic developments in the countries of origin if German tea manufacturers have their way.”
European Tea Day organizers announced the inaugural June 2 celebration in Brussels with panel discussions describing the European tea market, new ways of attracting next-generation tea drinkers, and a tasting session. Learn more…
The Ku/Ka-band dual-frequency precipitation measurement radar onboard the FY-3G Satellite captured rainfall near Hainan and Yangjiang in Guangdong Province. The image showed the three-dimensional structure of the precipitation system from 3.75 to 6 kilometers from the surface. Credits: National Satellite Meteorological Centre of CMA
Receding La Niña to Boost Summer Temps
China is again experiencing record-breaking heat early in the crop cycle, impacting Yunnan and several other tea-growing provinces.
The country has experienced several heat waves since March, with Yunnan in Southwestern China recording 40 Celsius highs. Northern provinces Jinan and Tianjin are seeing temperatures soar to 37C (about 98 degrees Fahrenheit).
Kunming, the capital of Yunnan, had recorded only 8 millimeters of rain through April. According to state broadcaster CCTV, the province has seen only 35 millimeters of rain since the first of the year, the lowest total since record-keeping began.
In its latest assessment, the World Meteorological Organization, WMO predicts a strong likelihood of the El Niño weather pattern returning later this year. The current La Niña pattern has moderated temperatures over the past three years. WMO said the change would most likely lead to a new spike in global heating.
A study published in Nature Reviews Earth found that sea surface temperatures and variability increased after 1960 in the Southern Oscillation (ENSO). El Niño and La Niña events are more frequent and more extreme. The CSIRO study found that El Niño events have doubled, and strong La Niña increased nine-fold.
Lead researcher Wenju Cai said that “Global warming makes the impact of these events more extreme because a warmer atmosphere holds more water, so when it rains, it rains harder, and evaporation is higher, making droughts more severe, their onsets earlier and harder to get out,” he said.
Lipton Hard Iced Tea | Pool Party TV Commercial
Catchy TV Campaign Promotes Lipton Hard Iced Tea
This week, Lipton unveiled a trio of television and web commercials that state the obvious.
The top-selling non-alcoholic tea brand recently launched a fresh-brewed line with 5% ABV (alcohol by volume). The new hard tea is blended with a triple-filtered malt base in four versions, replicating its best-selling flavored iced tea.
The lineup includes lemon, peach, strawberry, and half & half flavors.
According to Zion Market Research, the hard tea segment pioneered in 2001 by Boston Beer’s Twisted Tea was valued at $20 billion last year. Zion projects revenue will surpass $30 billion by 2030, growing at a combined annual rate of 11.9%.
Europe is expected to register the highest growth rate through 2030, followed by the Asia-Pacific region.
The television commercials, created by Founders Agency, depict situations in which actors are caught in humor, such as a guest who arrives in a swimsuit and fins for a “pool” party at a billiard room. When given a can of the new tea, the actors exclaim, “Obviously!”
Brand director Lisa Texido writes, “We created the recipe to make sure that the smooth, balanced flavor people love about Lipton iced tea came through. People will be surprised that a hard iced tea can be this delicious – a must-try.”
The tea is available in 12-packs of 12oz cans and 24oz single serve. Competitors, including Twisted, sell for $15-$18 for a 12-pack, $3 per 24oz can. Online prices were $18 for the Lipton 12-pack. A 12-pack of non-alcoholic Lipton Iced Tea sells for around $7, about 50-60 cents per can.
Lipton Hard Iced Tea (5% ABV)
FEATURES
Nadia de la Vega
Sustainability is a Long-Term Commitment, Not a Campaign or Promotion
By Jessica Natale Woollard
Cheerful packaging and bright aqua for a signature color have made DAVIDsTEA one of Canada’s most recognizable tea brands. Founded in 2008, DAVIDsTEA expanded to become Canada’s largest specialty tea boutique, offering over a hundred teas and blends. The company made tea accessible, attracting a new generation of tea drinkers. Pre-pandemic, it operated 240 retail locations in Canada and the US but today focuses on e-commerce and wholesale. From day one, DAVIDsTEA has been sustainably oriented. It’s in the company’s DNA, says Nadia de la Vega, DAVIDsTEA’s director of tea sustainability and content. Nadia joins us on the podcast to discuss sustainability in the tea industry and how mindfulness and fun can go hand in hand. “Sustainability is not a campaign,” says de la Vega. “When you’re doing sustainability work, you are not doing a sale, and you’re not doing a promotion. This is a long-term commitment to your product and the people that provide the product you consume and love.”
Listen to the Interview
Nadia de la Vega | DAVIDsTEA Director of Sustainability and Content
Panels explored tea production, trade, logistics, innovation, and sustainability
Tea News for the week ending April 28
| The Global Dubai Forum Makes a Splendid Return DMCC Executive Chairman and CEO Ahmed bin Sulayem commits to a biennial schedule for future conferences
| South India Planters Name 18 Golden Tea Leaf India Award Winners
| Indian Tea Association Presses for a Tea Price Floor Indexed to Rising Production Costs Borne by Smallholders and Made Leaf Producers
PLUS This week, Tea Biz discusses various revealing consumer trends and beverage insights with Siân Edwards, Group Insights Manager at Finlays. She says the outlook for the beverage industry is positive, with consumers making good choices for the planet and themselves.
A five-year pandemic-forced hiatus lent this year’s gathering of tea executives the atmosphere of a reunion on April 25-27. Three hundred attendees got reacquainted with each other and the impressive expansion of services at the Dubai Multi Commodities Center (DMCC).
Director of Agri Commodities Saeed Al Suwaidi, named to the post in January 2022, said that the DMCC Tea Center played a major role in positioning Dubai as the world’s largest re-exporter of tea.
“We launched the tea center in 2005 to further develop and grow the trade through Dubai by connecting tea producers and merchants, allowing tea-growing countries to reach a global market,” said Suwaidi.
The tea center, which spans over 20,000 square meters, offers a business center, storage, and blending solutions. “Our machines can produce up to 45 million tea bags per month with the capacity to store up to 5000 metric tons of bulk tea at any given time,” he said
DMCC provides free storage allocation to all its members due to increasing demand. The tea center has increased its service area by 25% In recent years, accommodating new state-of-the-art machinery and temperature-controlled storage facilities for specialty teas as well.
Tea competition judges Dr. Sharon Hall, UK, left, and Shabnam Weber, Canada.
South India Planters Name Golden Leaf India Award Winners
Eighteen tea estates took home prizes during award ceremonies at the 18th annual Golden Tea Leaf India Awards organized by the United Planters Association of South India (UPASI).
An international jury attending the Global Dubai Tea Forum selected winning teas from 118 entries in eight categories. Estates owned by Kanan Devan Hills Plantations (KDHP) won seven awards. Four estates from Parry Agro Industries and four Harrisons Malayalam estates also stepped forward to receive their prize at awards ceremonies on April 27.
Cherian George, a United Planters Association member and CEO at Harrisons Malayalam tea estates, said, “It’s been five years since judges last convened at the Global Dubai Tea Forum to select the winners. Unlike most competitions, he explained, UPASI coordinators select samples randomly.
“The coordinating committee walks across each factory and randomly* picks the sample. That’s a big differentiator. Those samples are tested blind by highly skilled brokers with great experience in the whole thing.
South India, unlike other tea-growing areas, has multi-locational tea growing. I mean, you have a mid-elevation, you have a low elevation, you have a high elevation, and each of them has got character. Some of the teas have got body, some have got strength, and some have got very high flavor.
He said preliminary screening resulted in 62 samples from 118 entries. “I don’t think we have ever brought more than 40 samples here,” said George, adding, “The Dubai Tea Forum has been very helpful in coordinating this. This time, we had some fantastic tasters globally, including Canada’s Shabnam Weber from Toronto and the UK’s Dr. Sharon Hall and Gundlach Packaging Managing Director Sanjay Sethi, based in Dubai.
So, you had a real plethora of people from multiple origins, and when they taste, it is not from one individual or one origin is multiple origins, giving complete visibility. The next phase is a special auction back home,” he said.
*The estate/factory participating in the competition should ensure a minimum lot size of 1.5 tons for Organic Tea and Green Tea, 2 tons for the Orthodox category, and a minimum of 3 tons for the CTC category.
ITA Seeks Minimum Tea Price Floor
ITA Seeks Tea Price Floor Indexed to Production Costs for Growers and Processors
The India Tea Association (ITA) has asked India’s Commerce Ministry to declare a minimum price for tea.
An ITA press release described how rising production expenses squeeze growers out of the tea market.
“According to ITA membership crop data, the Darjeeling crop is estimated to be down by 39% in March. Crop fall has been reported in the Dooars region, adding woes to the state’s ailing agro-industry. Tea prices are not keeping pace with the rising cost of production.”
Since 2014, West Bengal tea prices have registered an annual combined growth rate of around 4%, less than half the growth rates of fuel, fertilizer, and plant protection chemicals. Workers now earn Rs. 232 rupees daily, an increase of 144% from Rs. 95 rupees in April 2014.
The situation is more acute than in past years due to falling yield, the Hindu Businessline reported.
“Auction prices of Darjeeling tea have been more depressed than the overall West Bengal Average price – recording a CAGR of only 1.86% since 2014. Given that the cost of production in Darjeeling Hills is significantly higher than in the plains, most Darjeeling tea estates find it difficult to sustain operations.
ITA is seeking a floor price indexed to the cost of production payable to small tea growers and to made tea producers.
ITA writes that enforcing a floor price mechanism for smallholders selling green tea leaves offers an immediate solution to the “unremunerative price of tea” without any additional cost to the government.
State government officials in West Bengal and Assam conveyed their support in correspondence with the Ministry.
FEATURES
Finlays Group Insights Manager Siân Edwards
Conscious Consumerism
By Dan Bolton
Finlays annually publishes a beverage trends report. This year’s eighteen pages of statistics and market research revealed that consumers have growing concerns about food inflation and economic growth, but research cited in Finlays Beverage Trends 2023 indicates that consumers continue to view good tea as an affordable luxury, explains Group Insights Manager Siân Edwards.
“The desire to treat themselves, coupled with concern for their health and the planet, drives the trend toward conscious consumerism. We’re seeing how each purchasing decision is carefully evaluated regarding financial, health, and environmental cost. Throughout this report, we’ve sought to encapsulate this broad sentiment under the banner of ‘mindfulness,’ as people mindfully allow themselves indulgences, choose healthy products, and opt for brands with a lower environmental impact.”
| A Billion People Participate in Earth Day Activities Earth Day Organizers Honor Just Ice Tea Founder Seth Goldman
| Iran Snubs India Suppliers as Tea Exports Set Record
| Long-Running Drought in Kenya Depresses Tea Yields
| PLUS Vahdam Tea founder Bala Sarda is launching a new line of 25 Indian spices grown free of adulterants and pesticides and manufactured without artificial colors. Initially, Vahdam spices will be sold directly to consumers and later offered in grocery stores.
A Billion People Participate in Earth Day Activities
More than 1 billion people participated in Earth Day in the past year, making it the largest civic observance in the world.
This year’s focus was investing in the planet, a theme embraced by many tea companies. “Everyone accounted for, everyone accountable,” comments Kathleen Rogers, President of EARTHDAY.ORG who writes that the environmental awareness campaign that began in 1970 is now celebrated in 192 countries.
“In 2023 we must come together again in partnership for the planet. Businesses, governments, and civil society are equally responsible for taking action against the climate crisis and lighting the spark to accelerate change toward a green, prosperous, and equitable future. We must join together in our fight for the green revolution and for the health of future generations. The time is now to ‘Invest In Our Planet.’”
Yogi Tea is an example. During the past year, tea team members planted 300 trees in the US. In Germany, the company helps wild bees and in Italy, the company hosts educational sessions and community cleanups. See yogitea.com for suggestions on what individual consumers can do to make a difference.
Just Iced Tea founder Seth Goldman, Cofounder and CEO of Eat the Change, Chair of the Board of Beyond Meat, and Co-founder of PLNT Burger and Honest Tea, will receive Earth Day’s 2023 Climate Visionary Award in recognition of his exceptional leadership and decades of tireless efforts as an innovative entrepreneur, environmental and climate activist, and philanthropist.
Rogers writes that “his bold passion for democratizing plant-based and plant-healthy foods worldwide has significantly contributed to solving the challenge of climate change and building a strong and equitable green economy.”
“This year’s honorees are leading the way to create widespread awareness and accelerate critical action to change the trajectory of the defining crisis of our time: the climate crisis.,” said Rogers.
Goldman and several other notable earth advocates were recognized at Earth Day’s annual Climate Leadership Gala, on Saturday, April 27 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC.
Iranian port
Iran Snubs India Suppliers as Tea Exports Set Record
Iran imported a record $665 million worth of tea in the fiscal year ended March 20, 2023.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) said tea exports estimated at $44.2 million were also at record levels, increasing by 90% in the five years ending 2021. Exports were up 34.8% compared to the same period last year, according to IRICA.
Volume totals exceeded the previous fiscal-year high in 2014 despite cutting off trade with India. Export value totaled $38 million that year, plummeting to $6 million during the pandemic when lockdowns prohibited guest workers from nearby countries from plucking tea.
Iran was once one of India’s top tea export destinations, accounting for almost half of all Indian tea exports. Iran also shipped teas to India, valued at $4.3 million in 2021.
In November 2022, Iran initially slowed and, in December, stopped sourcing tea from South India auctions by refusing to register new contracts, a requirement for landing tea at Iranian ports. The pullback remains unexplained but may be related to internal protests and violent clashes in major Iranian cities. During the past three months, withdrawal from tea auctions has depressed auction prices for orthodox categories.
The auction at Kochi is most impacted.
“Nobody knows what’s happening in Iran,” Ansuman Kanoria, chairman of India Tea Exporters Association, told the Hindu Business Line “Shipments have been made under previously registered contracts, but even their payments are coming very slowly. New orders are not getting registered, and it’s a very difficult situation,” Kanoria said.
The IRICA release indicates Iran continues to import premium-grade tea from trading partners Turkey, Germany, China, Japan, Vietnam, and Poland. The main export destinations include neighboring CIS countries, Iraq, Canada, Spain, and the Czech Republic.
Tea is popular in the nation of 88 million, where annual consumption is around 120,000 metric tons per year, according to the Iran Tea Association.
Iran’s 55,000 tea farmers are concentrated in Gilan Province. Local suppliers in the northern portion of the country produce about 30% of domestic consumption. Growers earn around $15 million annually (about 4 trillion rials) in sales to the government, which processes the tea. Harvesting begins in May, with production rising by double digits during the past few years. The market prefers top-quality leaves (about 79% of total output is processed as orthodox black tea).
Tea exports fell by 19% in 2022 to 450 million kilograms, the first drop in volume since 2017.
Long-Running Drought in Kenya Depresses Tea Yields
Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) officials reported this week that scarce rainfall and high temperatures depressed first-quarter tea yields by 100 million kilos in the Mt. Kenya and Embu regions.
Export volumes declined by 19% in 2022 to 450 million kilograms, the first drop in volume since 2017. Output fell slightly to 535 million kilograms because of unfavorable weather.
KTDA Chair David Ichoho [I CHO HO] told a gathering of 225 directors representing 37 factories that the demand for orthodox teas from Kenya is rising.
“Orthodox tea, which includes oolong, green, white or black tea, has a high demand, and KTDA has identified markets that require more than 2 million kilos annually,” he told the directors. Ichoho said KTDA is initiating a program supporting the processing of orthodox tea for export. Kenya currently exports 95% of its tea, with only 5% consumed in the domestic tea market.
BIZ INSIGHT – Meanwhile, in West Bengal, India, weeks of temperatures between 35 and 40 degrees centigrade have inhibited the second flush harvest now underway. A lack of rain has encouraged infestations of red spiders that feed on yellowing tea leaves weakened in the extreme heat. There has been no rain for 15 days, complicated by high winds that increase evaporation. Tea yields average between 1200 and 1500 kilos per hectare in the Dooars. Yields average 2,200 to 2,400 kilos per hectare in bordering Assam.
India’s tea exports for the 2022-23 financial year registered a 17.61% increase in value to more than $800 million US dollars.
FEATURES
Vikas Khanna & Bala Sarda
Spice and Tea Synergy
By Aravinda Anantharaman
Bala Sarda’s Vahdam Tea turned eight this year. From launching Vahdam as a brand that connects tea drinkers with producers to a range of superfoods with turmeric, moringa, and matcha, Vahdam’s journey has been about an Indian brand offering consumers across the world what they want, direct from the source. The latest addition to the brand is a range of Indian spices, now offered not unlike their tea. We talk to Bala about the new launch and what it means for Brand Vahdam. Read more…
