Tea Exports In India looks promising
- India is the Second largest producer of tea in the world.
- While it is only the fourth largest exporter of tea in the world. This implies a significant consumption of tea within the country.
- The country is home to a wide variety of teas, including CTC tea, orthodox tea, green tea, and organic tea. Unlike many other tea producing and exporting nations, India has a manufacturing base for both CTC and orthodox tea, in addition to green tea
- India offers high-quality specialty teas, such as Darjeeling, Assam Orthodox and the high- range Nilgiri, which have a distinctive aroma, strength, color, and flavor.
- Russia remained the largest country importing bulk Tea from India. (RUSSIAN FED- 46319 Tonnes Rs 703.64 Crores, IRAN 30616 Tonnes Rs782 Crores, U.A.E 17708 Tonnes Rs.329.54Crores)
- The United States was the highest consumer of Instant Tea from India. (U.S.A 1503 Tonnes Rs68 Crores, IRELAND 597 Tonnes Rs.61 Crores, U.A.E 590 Tonnes Rs.10 Crores)
- While Arab Countries delighted most of the packet tea market (U.A.E 2800 Tonnes Rs.82 Crores, SAUDI ARABIA 2727 Tonnes Rs.71Crores, SWITZERLAND 1732 Tonnes Rs.41 Crores)
- Australia was most interested in Tea Bags from India.
- Tea exports from India to Iran almost trebled in the first four months of 2019 to almost Rs.600 Crores. In spite of US sanctions on Iran.
- In spite of being fourth, the percent of Indian exports is less than 10% of the world total.
- There have been problems faced by Indian Tea sector with regards to the challenge from Kenya due to a good crop to Tax-related concerns and over-production within India.
- The key to overcoming these problems would lie in developing and acquiring new markets Eg: Tea exported to Iran was approximately 66% of that sent to Russia but yielded 10% more revenue than Russia.
- There are great opportunities to develop and acquire new markets by Indian Teas.
Below are the 5 countries that exported the highest dollar value worth of tea during 2018.
- China: US$1.8 billion (23% of total tea exports)
- Kenya: $1.4 billion (17.7%)
- Sri Lanka: $942.2 million (12.1%)
- India: $763.2 million (9.8%)
- United Arab Emirates: $295 million (3.8%)
What is lacking?
Below are global tea-processing conglomerates that represent established players engaged in the international tea trade.
- Akbar Tea (Sri Lanka)
- Bigelow Tea Company (United States)
- Douwe Egberts aka Pickwick (Netherlands)
- George Steuart Group (Sri Lanka)
- Harada Tea Processing (Japan)
- Lancashire Tea (United Kingdom)
- Red Rose Tea (United States)
- Salada Tea (United States)
- Teekanne (Germany)
- Ten Fu Group (China)
- Tetley – Tata Global Beverages (India)
- Twinings (United Kingdom)
India: Largest Consumer, Second Largest Producer, Fourth Largest Exporter has only One Indian company Tata Global Beverages in top companies in the world in International trade. Clearly highlighting lack of competitive spirit in India. Indians are happy exporting to others at marginal profits without much investment then invest in marketing create brands and sell at maximum profits to the world.
Tea Board of India says India needs to push new entrepreneurs in Instant Tea and Tea Bags category also promoting new innovation and marketing techniques to survive the changing global tea landscape.
https://www.economist.com/business/2018/01/11/indias-tea-industry-is-going-through-tepid-times
1 comment
Fawad Alamgir October 27, 2019
Thanks for this insightful article Sir.