As part of the growing demand for Indian Tea, UAE has been ranked second for importing Tea from India. During the period of January to September this year, UAE imported around 28.58 million kilograms of tea which is an increase of almost 159 percent when compared to the figures of last year. This trend is to continue through the coming year too as the other major tea-importing nations like the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Iraq, and Iran are all caught up in different economic roadblocks.
Report From January To September
CIS has been facing issues because of the Russia-Ukraine war whereas imports into Iraq have been stopped because of payment problems. Tea imports to Iran are also getting affected because of economic restrictions imposed by the US and also because of the non-issuance of invoices.
The CIS imported around 38.06 million kilograms this year which is considered to be the highest among the other importers of Indian Tea worldwide. The UAE increasing their tea import is a good sign for Indian Tea exporters under the India Tea Association (ITA), as this would ensure stable business and income. They are also aiming to improve business relations with the Chinese markets as they are the highest consumers of tea beverages.Â
India is the second largest tea producer in the world and has the potential for increasing its supply to international nations with proper marketing and promotions. Orthodox tea, which is the most in demand for exports needs to be manufactured on a larger scale increasing the overall stock so that the demand for the future can be met.
Orthodox tea is basically loose tea leaf produced using the traditional method of plucking, withering, rolling, fermentation and drying whereas there are other methods like CTC or Crush, Tear, and Curl methods. Orthodox tea process tries to keep the integrity of the tea leaves and it creates diverse flavors using the whole leaf.Â
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The ITA has asked the ministry to consider giving subsidies to tea producers as most of them are small tea growers. In order to handle the expenses relating to orthodox tea production, the government can support the tea growers by providing them with orthodox tea incentives which were provided years before. The withdrawal of orthodox tea subsidies in the last term affected the overall orthodox tea production and exports.
The tea producers are facing a tough situation as they are not able to match up with the increase in production cost. FSSAI quality-compliant tea imports are to be sanctioned so as to give an equal opportunity field for the tea producers of India as importing low-quality teas can hamper the tea market causing a dip in the prices.
The current rise in demand for the India Tea markets comes after a fifteen-year low of 195.5 million kilograms in 2021. The economic crisis in Sri Lanka is also another reason that fueled the tea exports in India as there was an increase of twenty-two percent.
Earlier, Sri Lanka was one of the major exporters of orthodox tea with an export rate of around three hundred million kilograms and they used to export it to Europe and American countries.
The newfound opportunity for Indian tea producers is been dealt with caution as they have to produce high-quality orthodox tea leaves for countries like UAE and CIS.
The effort to match up to global demand will definitely come with hurdles for small-time tea growers concentrated around the state of Assam as they are responsible for producing the largest quantity of orthodox tea in India. The state and national governments have to take extra support measures to provide financial and commercial assistance for future benefits. Â Â