Dispelling Tea Gloom and Doom

Joydeep Phukan, the principal officer and Secretary of India’s Tea Research Association (TRA), observes, “There is a lot of negativity in the industry regarding prices and overproduction. Last year, 2023, was a bad year for the global tea industry.” In this context, hosting the 25th FAO Intergovernmental Group on Tea (IGG) session, preceded by a two-day conference celebrating 200 years of Assam tea, was challenging. Three weeks before the event, only 75 had registered, but “We closed at nearly 450 delegates. I feel like this was a big learning lesson for the industry.”

In Tea Biz Blog | Podcast Episode 157, Managing Editor Aravinda Anantharaman debriefs Phukan on the two events. He cites as key takeaways #TeaPower, a marketing proposal targeting youth with a sports, fitness, and wellness theme.

Regarding regenerative agriculture, “Tocklai now suggests that every 50 years, planters should uproot and rehabilitate the soil for at least 18 to 24 months, planting grasses and plants and applying biochar so the soil is regenerated. “Then, after two years of soil rehabilitation, you are ready to go for another, maybe 30-40 years of planting,” he said. There is less “doom and gloom” this year, he says. "We have the production now and are finding new markets. We’re lucky to have a robust domestic market which is dropping nearly 1,200 million kilos of tea a year,” he said.

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