Battered by falling demand and low price realisation, tea producing nations have decided to form a body under the Food & Agriculture Organisation to address regulatory and quality related issues.
According to India, the second-largest tea-producing nation, there are issues relating to quality of the product, expansion of area under cultivation, and the changing palette of the customers shifting towards coffee that have to be addressed unanimously.
India has urged the International Tea Producers Forum (ITPF) members to come up with a forum to address issues concerning tea-producing countries.
Basudeb Banerjee, chairman of India’s Tea Board, said, “The last meeting of the Inter Governmental Group (IGG) was in May in China. The Indian delegation said that producing countries like Sri Lanka, Kenya, and Indonesia should form a unit.”
“The prime purpose is to bring producers under one umbrella to work towards one intent and not at cross-purposes,” he said, at the 125th annual general meeting of the Indian Tea Association.
According to him, every country believes that there has to be a restriction on the expansion of area under tea.
“Except for countries like Vietnam and some smaller African countries, all producers feel that we should aim at improving productivity rather than expanding the area,” he said. Vietnam is a new player in tea growing.