The Indian Tea Association (ITA) expects to double exports to China in the next one year.

During January-October 2018, India exported 7.76 million kg (mkg) of tea to China valued at around ₹135 crore, a growth of over 19 per cent as compared to 6.5 mkg in the year-ago period.

According to ITA Chairman Vivek Goenka, the numbers are likely to grow to close to 15 mkg by December 2019.

India exported close to 240 million kg (mkg) of tea in 2017. Russia, the UAE, the UK and Iran are some of the major markets for Indian teas.

Advantage CTC teas

“China imports close to 30 mkg of tea annually, a major share of which comes from Sri Lanka. That is also because they keep organising frequent trade delegations. If we are more active and take concerted efforts then we should be able to export close to 15 mkg of tea to China by December 2019,” Goenka said.

While orthodox and Darjeeling teas account for a major share of total exports to China, CTC is also picking up in a big way. India is into production of CTC, with the orthodox variety accounting for close to 10 per cent of the country’s total production of around 1278.83 mkg in 2017. The change in the consumption pattern in China, with a rising preference for CTC, could be an advantage for Indian tea makers.

The ITA Chairman was talking to newspersons after signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the China Tea Marketing Association (CTMA), an apex tea association. The MoU aims to collaborate towards ensuring sustainability of the industry globally and promoting black and green teas in international markets. A 14-member team from CTMA led by its President Wang Qing is in Kolkata on ITA’s invitation.

Driving sustainability

According to Goenka, the tie-up will also explore possibilities of technological innovation in tea manufacturing and retail.

“Through this partnership we are looking to promote black and green teas globally by organising joint events and present before consumers the tea culture by giving them an understanding of quality and varieties of tea,” he said.

It is to be noted that while global production has been consistently on the rise for the last few years, consumption growth has not kept pace with it, leading to demand-supply imbalance.

China, Goenka said, has done a lot of ‘interesting work’ in tea retailing by introducing several value-added products. They also successfully market teas as old as 10-years or more at a premium. This apart, they have gone in for mechanisation not just in factory level but also on field. This, if successfully implemented, could help bring down costs for Indian tea makers.

“We are looking at the mechanisation to help bring down costs but we have to be careful not to compromise on quality,” he said.

ITA is hopeful that the MoU will also help remove trade restrictions that affect Indo-China tea trade and boost Indian tea exports.