The Hindu Business Line : Competition props up south Indian tea exports

FOCUS ON VALUE-ADDITION: The Union Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, releasing Upasi's project report on "Value enchancement of south Indian teas" at Coonoor. Others (from left) are Mr J.K. Thomas, the newly-elected President of Upasi, Mr N. Dharmaraj, Convenor, TGLIA, and Mr E. B. Sethna, outgoing President, Upasi.

Kochi , Sept. 20

The launching of "The Golden Leaf India Awards" (TGLIA), jointly by the Upasi and the Tea Board of India, last year, appears to have yielded positive results in terms of value and volume in the export of South Indian tea so far in 2006.

Shipments of South Indian tea have shown an increase of 27 per cent this year over the same period in 2005 at a time when the north Indian exports are down by 37 per cent this year. Upasi, the apex tea body of South India, has attributed this to the emerging quality awareness created by TGLIA.

Premium for winners

On the value front, while the general price has narrowed, the prize-winning factories have been getting a premium of 13 per cent over the industry average, Mr N. Dharmaraj, Convenor, TGLIA, told Business Line on Wednesday.

Given this trend, Upasi is projecting a volume increase of 18 per cent and value enhancement 25 per cent on tea exports from South India using the TGLIA platform.

This is mentioned in a project report entitled "Value Enhancement of South Indian Teas: Quality and Marketing Initiatives," which was released by the Union Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, at the Upasi annual conference held in Coonoor on September 16, he said.

Quality initiatives

TGLIA 2005 (Coonoor) and 2006 (Dubai) launched with the objective of creating a regional cum estate identities for the South Indian teas, unleashed the high-quality potential of the South India teas as acknowledged by the international jury.

Upasi, he said, now plans to institutionalise these quality initiatives, backed by suitable marketing strategies, to secure exclusivity in the market for these improved teas.

Mr Dharmaraj said the suggested road map included the following initiatives — regular participation in global trade fairs and conducting of two competitions a year — one for orthodox and other for CTC, including in world locations; creation of regional identity (GI) and regional logos; creation of TGLIA marketing structure; domestic promotion of TGLIA teas through exclusive outlets; promotion of TGLIA teas through stand-alone fairs/counters abroad on a format of industry-government interface; reverse visit of national and international buyers to prize-winning estates on a yearly basis coinciding with the Upasi week; and branding of TGLIA teas, and retail packaging.

The process and methodology for the future competitions will be similar to the earlier competitions. The features of the protocol adopted are commercially viable back-up quantity, exhaustive and confidential sampling and coding, two-tier evaluation (nation and international jury) use of quantified scoring methodology for evaluating quality attributes, statistical cut-off to ensure international quality benchmarking and technical analysis to ensure conformation to ISO 3720 and EU pesticide residue guidelines.

The next competition will be held during the India International Festival scheduled for June next year in Guwahati. The competition will be extended to the North Indian teas as well, as suggested by the Tea Board, he said. The Commerce Ministry is also keen that the successful Upasi/Krishi Vigyan Kendra quality upgradation model, targeting small holders, be extended to the North-East as well, he said.

The targeted markets, he said, are Russia and CIS, West Asia, the UK and Europe, Japan, the US and Canada. The top-end unit value of exports of these high-quality teas is — Japan Rs 224/kg, Germany Rs 177/kg and the US Rs 152/kg.

Mr Dharmaraj said the prize-winning teas had elevated themselves to a quality league that keeps them on par with Darjeeling in the case of orthodox teas and good Assam in the case of CTC teas.

The latest trend in world tea production has a shown a decline of 29.5 million kg. The January-July 2006 output stood at 905.7 million kg as against 935.2 million kg in the same period last year. The total Indian production was up by 8.2 million kg to 466.9 million kg compared to 458.7 million kg. The North Indian production has gone up by 16.3 million kg, while that of South India showed a decline of 8.1 million kg.

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