Drip Capital Inc, a global trade finance company, has recently released a report examining tea trade across different regions of India. From analyzing proprietary and publicly available data, getting insights from tea manufacturers in the country to understanding several emerging market trends, the report speaks in-depth about the dynamics of the tea sector.
Drip Capital’s research indicates that West Bengal exported US $173 Mn worth Indian tea in FY 2019-20. It has also been observed that the tea exports from this region have been growing at a CAGR of 10% over the past five years i.e. during the period FY 2015-20.
Darjeeling is a globally renowned town for its historically strong association with tea, whereas West Bengal is the second-largest exporter of the commodity in India after Assam. Indian tea is of premium quality and will always be in demand. But the report indicates that the tea industry hasn’t invested enough to build a brand image and neglects to do so even today. For instance, the landmark event of the allocation of the Geographical Indication (GI) Tag of Darjeeling Tea in 2004 wasn’t leveraged to its full potential and, in turn, hardly had any implications on the Indian tea exports. In 2019, India exported 50% more tea than Sri Lanka. Besides prioritizing the brand image of local tea, India needs to opt for the highly preferred, easy to transport, and convenient to use smaller packaging than the bulk ones.
