India tea producers face export challenges

Описание: (20 Jun 2002) SHOTLIST

Darjeeling, West Bengal
1. Wide mist-covered hills with tea gardens
2. Various of workers picking tea leaves in tea gardens
3. Workers climbing up factory stairs with tea baskets
4. Tea leaves being weighed
5. Tea leaves being put out for drying
6. Tea leaves being processed
7. SOUNDBITE: (English): Sanjay Bansal, Tea Planter
"In the Indian tea industry, evolution did not take place and the old systems have lost out their relevance. They are outdated- to put it straight. Thus, you have the old system working in a new market condition and therefore, aberration in distribution of the value that the consumer pays."
8. Various of tea tasting session in progress
9. SOUNDBITE: (English): N K Das, Chairman, Indian Tea Board
"We are facing very stiff competition from lot of new emerging countries including Vietnam, Indonesia, so on and of course, Kenya and Sri Lanka are both nations which are heavily dependent on their exports. The difference in the Indian tea industry is that we have a large domestic industry which is a very good cushion for absorbing the teas
that we produce. However, lately, we have realised that with the kind of slowdown in domestic consumption for various reasons, we need to ensure that we have a very strong export base also."
10. Various of packaged tea
11. Various of tea being poured into cups
12. Various of celebrations to promote tea

STORYLINE :

One of India's most famous exports, tea, is now under fire from the big increase in the number of tea producing nations as well as .

From the 15 or 16 countries which traditionally produced tea, the number has now risen to over 29.

New entrants like Nepal, Kenya, China, Sri Lanka and Vietnam with their aggressive production tactics are challenging India's traditional methods.

Changing tastes are also putting India's tea producers under strain.

Darjeeling tea used to be the most popular brand worldwide, but it has since been overtaken by other brands.

India has also lost important export markets in recent times.

In the 70s, India signed an accord with the former Soviet Union for it to import 50 per cent of India's entire tea production .

Following the collapse of the USSR, the Indian tea industry suffered a major setback.

However, India is unique in the huge domestic market is supplies - of the 850 million kilogrammes of tea that
India produces every year- 450 million kilogrammes is drunk in India.

This is a phenomenon seen nowhere else in the tea-producing world.

For instance, Sri Lanka consumes only 10 per cent of its total produce and exports over 90 per cent.

Tea is cultivated in the northeastern region of India- West Bengal's Darjeeling, Dooars, Assam and Cachar- and the south- Tamil Nadu and Kerala's western ghat region.

The range of tea offered by India is varied- from the aroma and flavour of Darjeeling tea to the strong Assam and Nilgiri tea.

There are two main methods of tea manufacturing - orthodox type and CTC (crushed-torn-curled) type.

Since its advent in the late 50s, the CTC process has been widely used by most of the tea factories in India.

It is quicker to brew and makes more cups of tea per kilogramme - both attributes in demand by Indian tea drinkers.

But the rest of the world prefers teas made with the orthodox method.

The tea takes longer to brew and does not produce so many cups per kilo but it does have a reputation for having a better, more delicate flavour.

So India's tea producers are torn between supplying their domestic market, which is however shrinking, and their export market.











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