Outlook English - Print Subscribers Copy Outlook English, 30 July 2018 | Página 13
Left, a tea-tasting session at
the Castleton tea factory in the
Kurseong Valley in Darjeeling
salubrious climate, started under a British
officer, Captain Samler, in the 1840s.
Plantations expanded rapidly, and accord
ing to official records from 1915, there
were 156 tea estates. Now, there are 87
that can sell their produce as ‘Darjeel
ing’—a registered geographical indication
(GI). Though Darjeeling annually produ
ces less than 8.5 million kg or .2 per cent of
the total tea produced in India, it’s tradi-
tionally considered the world’s finest tea.
The spring and summer harvests are the
most premium and fetch the best prices.
Darjeeling produces four crops a year—
the first flush, which accounts for 20 per
cent of teas produced, the second
flush, another 20 per cent, a
monsoon flush of 30 per cent
and the autumn flush that yields
30 per cent. “As per Tea Board
figures, in 2016, production of
Darjeeling tea stood at 8.44 mil-
lion kg a year, a minuscule frac-
tion of India’s total tea
production of 1.2 billion kg , as
compared to 14 million kg in
1994,” explains Sandip Mukh
erjee, principal advisor at
DTA. There is no production
during the four-and-a-half-
month winter, when the bushes
hibernate, unlike in other
tea-growing regions.
Then there is the price for going organic.
The yield has steadily fallen from a high of
14 million kg, once the estates started to
shun chemical inputs, Mukherjee says.
Contracting yields have swelled costs of
production, and the industry on average
sells 40-50 per cent of the crop at unprof-
itable prices.
Climate change is another bane—
drought in March is quite common now.
“Darjeeling tea’s uniqueness depends on
temperature, topography, soil composi-
tion and distribution of rain,” Mukherjee
says. “Rainfall records over the past two
decades show that rain on an annual
average has gone down by 22 per cent.
Instead of being well distributed
through the year, it has become erratic.”
Tea grown in the same estate doesn’t
fetch the same price all year round—the
quality changes with the season. Even tea
plucked on the same day may not be
consistent in quality as cultivation takes
place at different altitudes—the higher
the better, says Ashok Kumar Lohia,
chairman of Chamong Tea Group, which
owns 13 gardens in the Darjeeling hills
and exports most of its organic teas.
Lohia, like most planters, is guarded
about disclosing revenue from exports.
He says the GI protection to Darjeeling
tea has been a saving grace. “Big global
brands are unable to replace Darjeeling
tea due to the GI protection,” he says. But,
he warns, political uncertainty has made
“Darjeeling tea unreliable and unpredict-
able as a brand to global buyers”.
Anil Bansal of Ambootia Group, with
14 estates, says many estates owners
may not survive the crisis. “We are
struggling to keep our head above water
as exports of our sought-after first and
earnings. “For the rest of the year, it is a
struggle,” Mukherjee says.
Poor production in Darjeeling and a
disrupted supply have given space for tea
from neighbouring Nepal to make inr
oads into the market, and this may have
long-term price implications, Mukherjee
portends. “Darjeeling tea is the cynosure
of Indian tea, for which we need govern-
ment support. We need to have a mini-
mum base price, as tea is an agricultural
commodity like sugar.”
M
ANY retailers and bulk buyers have
switched to Nepali tea, which is
similar in character, but much
cheaper. There are reports that
dishonest dealers are raking in money by
mixing the Nepal variety with Darjeeling
tea procured through auctions.
“The government needs to punish
these people. They are tarnishing
the Darjeeling tea industry’s
image,” says Mukherjee.
Indian estate owners lobbying
for trade barriers on imports
from Nepal say the GI tag is only
a crutch unless leveraged to cre-
ate a value proposition in people.
But wooing consumers back to
the Darjeeling variety has not
been easy, and it had a huge imp
act on auction prices this year.
Significantly, political uncertai
nty and unpredictable crops
PROBIR PRAMANIK
have impacted both export and
domestic
consumption. While 65
“Darjeeling tea needs
per cent of teas produced in Darjeeling is
government support,
exported—major groups like Chamong,
image building and a
Ambootia, Goodricke and Makaibari sell
directly to bulk buyers in Europe and
minimum base price,”
Japan—the rest of the industry is depend-
says Sandip Mukherjee,
ent on large buyers, who soak up the
principal advisor at DTA.
monsoon produce through an age-old
system of auctions.
second flush teas took a major hit.”
Militant trade unions have added to
Bansal’s estates find mention in cata- the woes of the industry too. “All major
logues and stores of Mariage Freres.
political parties have their trade union
At stake due to the debacle is the future wings in the gardens, forming a bulk of
of tea factories and estates. “We are in a the votebank and one-upmanship
situation so unfortunate that we trying to among union leaders have proved detri-
somehow save the 160-year industry. No mental to workers, the fulcrum of the
one realises the huge impact of last year’s industry,” says a planter.
shutdown. Absentee workers, as high as
The sheer barrage of problems ranged
35-40 per cent of the workforce, also against the delicate Darjeeling tea looks
hampers production,” Bansal says.
ominous, but it doesn’t have to be insur-
Though owners make healthy profits mountable. Improving ground situation,
from the early harvests spanning four government intervention and a flush or
months, starting April—the first and two of the choicest luck can put the col-
second flush—they are guarded about our back on its cheeks. O
30 July 2018 OUTLOOK 13