ITA to launch social media campaign to promote tea

The Indian Tea Association (ITA) is looking at launching a social media campaign to target the ‘young population’ in the age bracket of 15-35 years. The campaign will aim to boost tea consumption among ‘coffee drinkers’ which, in turn, will strengthen demand for the beverage and enhance prices.

According to Vivek Goenka, Chairman, ITA, the campaign will be rolled out on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

“We are already in talks with some marketing companies for designing the campaign. We are hopeful of rolling it out this year and it will run for at least 6-12 months,” Goenka told BusinessLine on the sidelines of the launch of TRINITEA, a self-assesment app for small tea growers to enable compliance locally and internationally.

Also read:FAO arm sees scope to augment tea consumption by youngsters

The estimated budget for the campaign could be upward of ₹50 lakh. ITA is also in talks with the Tea Board of India to extend funding support to the campaign, besides holding talks with Central and State governments.

While tea consumption and penetration is quite high among people above the age of 45-50 years, it has not really “made a mark” among the younger populace, Goenka observed.

CTC prices for the first flush crop opened lower by ₹20-30 a kg at the auction this year, as compared to the same period last year. This is despite the fact that production was estimated to be lower following the early closure directive of the Tea Board.

The industry was hopeful that around 40-50 mkg of teas would be out from the system, leading to low carryover stock for this season. This would, in turn, help prices of the first flush open on a firm note.

However, only around 10-20 mkg was squeezed, and there was therefore a glut in the market. However, demand has been largely flat in the last couple of years, leading to pressure on prices.

PK Bezboruah, Chairman, Tea Board, said that since the industry is unable to control production or supply, the only rescue will be to increase demand or consumption and one way of doing that would be to go for generic promotion of tea.

TRINITEA initiative

The TRINITEA programme, a collaborative effort of ITA and Solidaridad Asia, aims to provide year-round training to improve the agronomical, social and environmental practices of small tea growers.

Small tea growers account for nearly 47 per cent of the country’s tea production, which stood at around 1,326 million kg in 2018-19.

Under the TRINITEA programme, ITA has signed MoUs with major small tea grower bodies in Assam and West Bengal. Solidaridad has developed an android-based digital training tool for farmers in local languages to continue training virtually.

“TRINITEA aims to provide smallholders a platform to be compliant with international and national standards and be competitive in the market by improving quality and realising better prices for their produce,” said Shatadru Chattopadhayay, Managing Director, Solidaridad Asia.

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