Indian tea producers need to move towards premium and speciality teas to earn enough to adopt sustainable practices, experts said at a panel on "Sustainable Tea: Pathways for Future" at the UPASI Tea Research Foundation's centenary conference in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, on Tuesday.

Hariram Govind of Hindustan Unilever said China produces and consumes three times as much tea as India, most of it premium, and that consumption there has shifted from plain to premium teas, with young people also drinking tea. In India, where tea reaches 90 per cent of the market and a person drinks three to four cups a day, the focus should be on raising consumption of premium teas, he said, adding that sustainable and regenerative practices become economically viable as they scale up.

Ena Irino of S. Ishimitsu and Co, Japan, said commoditisation and climate change are the two main obstacles: low prices leave producers unable to reinvest, and climate change has hurt productivity. Producing more speciality and premium teas would help, she said; in Japan, sustainability is a basic standard for tea.

Marcus Wulf of Schroeder & Hanmann, Germany, said sustainability in tea, which began three decades ago, has become largely about a certificate on the packet, when producers need to earn more to invest in sustainable production. Japan, China and Korea produce artisan teas, he noted, while buyers go to countries offering sustainable tea at lower prices, so India should also focus on bringing its prices down.

The panel was moderated by S. Soundararajan, Director (Tea Development) at the Tea Board of India.

Photo: Gauri Wur Sem / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Source: The Hindu – Agriculture