The need for promoting tea on the strength of its health benefits was underlined by the tea industry on the occasion of the International Tea Day (ITD) on Thursday.

“The Intergovernmental Group of FAO as also the United Nations’ General Assembly which have been instrumental in designating May 21 as ITD from this year have laid stress on augmenting the per capita consumption of tea across the world, including in the producing countries,” L Vairavan, Vice-Chairman, Coonoor Tea Trade Association (CTTA), told Business Line.

“Ar present, the per capita consumption in India is around 720 gm per year. If each Indian drinks one cup more, it would be 2 gms more of tea per person per day which would be 730 gms per year and the per capita consumption would be about 1.45 kg a year. For the whole population of India, the requirement would be 1,813 million kg (mkg) whereas India’s production in 2019 was about 1,390 mkg which would mean we will have to import tea,” Vairavan explained.

“But, it will not be possible to make each Indian drink one extra cup daily unless the Tea Board leads the industry and trade with an aggressive promotion,” he added.

Tea promotion is to be undertaken on a three-pronged approach, with stress on health benefits and on environment and socio-economic strengths.

It is believed that tea strengthens immunity and after the Covid-19 spread, there has been an increase in demand for tea.

“We have good orders for turmeric green tea and are working on increasing the production to meet the demand. We are distributing liquid turmeric green tea to our workers and their families, most of whom are migrant labourers from the North,” Avataa Beverages Director Udayakumar said.

“Avataa Beverages’ tea holds the record for the highest price when its tea was sold by Paramount Tea Marketing in 2018 at CTTA auctions for ₹2,401 a kg – the highest price fetched by any tea in any regular auction anywhere in South India all these years,” Vairavan added.

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