The ITA Chair highlighted that small-scale tea producers presently account for over 54% of India’s complete manufacturing and referred to as for a good and sustainable inexperienced leaf pricing mannequin. Photograph credit score: Reuters
Virtually every week after devastating floods and landslides hit northern Bengal, tea plantations in Darjeeling, Tarai and Dooars are nonetheless counting the injury. Almost 30 of the area’s 276 gardens have been affected by the deluge, however the trade doesn’t but know the price of the injury.
Indian Tea Affiliation President Hemant Bangle stated on the 142nd Annual Basic Assembly of the Indian Tea Affiliation (ITA) in Kolkata that the North Bengal floods are a manifestation of local weather change.
“The catastrophic floods and landslides, erosion of plantation areas and tragic lack of life that occurred in elements of north Bengal, notably the Darjeeling Hills and Dooars over the previous weekend, are manifestations of local weather change’s adversaries. It goes with out saying that there’s an pressing have to keep away from such disasters and discover options,” Bangur stated.
Dooars ITA representatives have additionally written to authorities officers in north Bengal, searching for monetary assist to restore embankments which have flooded tea gardens. Tea plantation house owners in Darjeeling are additionally contemplating searching for help from the West Bengal authorities to restore infrastructure and communication inside the tea property for future manufacturing.
Ravi Kota, chief secretary of Assam, the nation’s largest tea producer, attended the ITA annual common assembly on October 9 and stated local weather change was the most important long-term threat to the tea trade. Local weather change is blamed on elevated temperatures on account of heavy and erratic rainfall, however is commonly attributed to a decline in tea manufacturing within the Darjeeling Hills. Within the case of Darjeeling tea, manufacturing from January to Could 2025 was 1.34 million kg, whereas in the identical interval in 2023 it was 1.47 million kg. The shortfall in 2025 is estimated to be 18.24%.
In line with ITA, international tea manufacturing has soared by 352 million kg, leaving a surplus of 418 million kg in 2024. Home manufacturing in India will decline in 2023, however is anticipated to get well and grow to be worthwhile in 2025.
The ITA Chair highlighted that small-scale tea producers presently contribute over 54% of India’s complete manufacturing and referred to as for a good and sustainable inexperienced leaf pricing mannequin and a degree enjoying subject to offset the authorized and value disadvantages confronted by producers within the organized sector.
Bangle stated public sale costs for north Indian tea have fallen considerably, impacting profitability and threatening the survival and livelihood of tea producers. “Information launched for August 2025 displays a decline in tea costs in North India by ₹16.87 per kg, effectively under final 12 months’s realized worth vary. This steep decline, which has fallen by greater than 7.6 per cent throughout auctions, threatens survival and livelihoods,” Bangar stated.
The ITA chairman additionally stated the brand new US tariff regime was a setback for tea exports, however welcomed the Tea Board’s motion on reinstating the Tea Council Committee to supervise imports and exports. “The brand new US tariff regime is actually a setback and is impacting the competitiveness of Indian tea within the US market. We hope that our central authorities’s ongoing commerce dialogue with our US companions will end in a rational evaluate of this imposition,” Bangar stated.
On the actionable points of local weather change, the Chair highlighted the partnership between ITA and Solidaridad Asia to advertise regenerative tea cultivation in some tea gardens according to Regen-Agri requirements.
