Kenya’s tea export is higher than that of India, despite having a combined 13 per cent of the world’s production with Sri Lanka compared to India’s 23 per cent.
India’s tea manufacturers and stakeholders have expressed indignation at Kenya’s and Sri Lanka’s combined increase of tea exports, at 39 per cent to the country’s 13 per cent. India is fourth tea exporter, after Kenya, China and Sri Lanka.
“In 2017, India accounted for 23 per cent of the global tea production. But Kenya and Sri Lanka together contributed to just 13 per cent of the world’s production. However, when it comes to exports, it has been found that they jointly have an export share of 39 per cent. For India, it is only 13 per cent,” said Chairman R.P. Thapliyal during the annual general meeting of Terai and Dooars branch of the Tea Association of India.
Some of the officials attributed the drop to factors such as price and less orders from traditional markets like Russia and UAE responsible for the fall in India’s share on the global market.
“In the nineties, CTC (Crush, Tear, Curl) tea made in the Dooars and the Terai had been exported. But in recent years, it stopped and gardens have to depend on domestic consumption,” said Prabir Bhattacharjee, the secretary general of the TAI.
