INDIA
India exported 222.45 million kilos (m.kg)of tea in 2016, which is only a sixth of the tea grown there. Most of the exported tea is lower grade for blending. Only a small portion is processed as full-leaf orthodox.
The Tea Board of India is seeking new markets with a strategy that involves government support in negotiating free trade agreements with countries, followed by official trade delegations eager to dislodge existing suppliers. The strategy appears to be working.
In the first four months of 2017, India exported 73m.kg of tea compared with 69m.kg the previous year. India Tea Board chairman Prabhat Bezboruah said the United States is a 200m.kg tea market. India currently supplies 10 million kilos. Trade delegates on a recent visit to New York met with Tea Association of the U.S.A. The association estimates US consumption at 84 billion servings in 2016. Gains have been steady for more than two decades.
Bezboruah said India experienced a good harvest and while most of the tea grown there is for domestic consumption, growers are producing a lot more specialty tea. Now is the ideal time to promote third-party certified sustainable and organic teas as well as greater variety such as white tea and green teas.