New Delhi, Nov 11 (KNN) The Indian tea has to be now developed as a brand and no longer as a bulk commodity export, said Tea Board chairman Sourav Pahari on Thursday.

Addressing the 139th Annual General Meeting of Indian Tea Association (ITA), Pahari said “Industry has not been focussing on branding Indian tea overseas. The Indian Tea must be recognised world over. Darjeeling Tea should be recognised as an Indian brand.”

During the meeting, the Tea Board also sought an assistance of Rs 1,000 crore from the Ministry of Commerce for the tea industry in the next five years. The proposed budget for five years starting 2022-23 takes into account small tea growers (STGs), orthodox subsidies to the industry, technology and research as well as promotion.

The assistance sought from the Ministry also includes a component on promotion of Indian tea.

“Around 52 per cent of total tea production in the country comes from STGs and it is good to note that the tea industry on the whole now acknowledges the contribution of the STGs,” he said.

 He also added that the relations between big tea planters and the STGs “should not be adversarial”.

The Chairman also stressed the need to raise domestic consumption, particularly when exports were down. “With exports having slowed down, a lot of tea is being dumped in the domestic markets, which we are not consuming. We consume less than one kg tea [per capita] per year. If the demand goes up by 1 kg, our producers will get a better price,” he added.

ITA Chairperson Nayantara Palchoudhuri said that consumption per capita in India despite the increase to the current level of 850 gm was less than our neighbouring countries. Palchoudhuri said tea exports during 2022 are expected to touch 230 million kg, compared with 196 million kg in the previous year. “We have to target a volume of 350 Mkg (million kg) within the next 3-4 years,” she added.

The chairperson flagged issues relating to the Darjeeling tea industry and said that for revival, fiscal interventions by the way of a special financial package for the industry needed to be considered without delay.  (KNN Bureau)