In a bid to increase its share in the international market, the Indian tea industry is switching towards organic cultivation. India, which sells its entire organic tea to countries such as UK, US, Germany and Japan, faces competition from Sri Lanka and China in the international market.
?We would like entire cultivation in the country to shift to the organic mode,? tea board chairman MGVK Bhanu. ?We have taken up pilot projects in places like Darjeeling. We are trying to develop organic inputs for the tea gardens,? he said, while talking to reporters on the sidelines of the India International Tea Convention here.
?We have seen a good growth in the organic tea segment. Sixty percent of the tea gardens in Darjeeling are organic. Almost every year one garden in Assam becomes organic,? Bhanu said. According to industry estimates, the cost for organic production has gone up by around 30%. ?For that, the producers need to get a premium for their output,? said CS Bedi, chairman of the Indian Tea Association. Organic tea production in India has increased from 0.15 mkg in 1990 to around 3.5 mkg at present.
?We have seen Darjeeling produce getting a good price. Non-organic gardens such as Castleton are getting similar price this year,? said Arun Singh, MD and CEO of the Goodricke Group.
?There are gardens in south India that have dedicated customers for their organic crops. So shifting to organic mode of cultivation had been easier for them.The price should double to match the increase in the input costs. Mostly buyers from Europe, US and Japan look forward to organic tea,? said GJ Ancheril, president of the United Planters? association of Southern India.
The tea board has set aside a corpus of R150 crore for research and development of which R20 crore will be earmarked for developing weather-resistant tea clones.
Another R350 crore has been set aside for replanting old bushes, which are less productive and are affecting the overall production of crop in India.