India’s tea exports went down by 20 per cent over the past five years to around 200 million kilos. From 2017-18 to 2021-22, annual exports of the beverage declined from 256.67 million kilos to 200.79 million kilos. In terms of volume, however, it rose by 7 per cent to Rs 5,412 crore.
There has been a decline in tea exports in the last few years. Reportedly, this was due to non-availability of containers, dislocation in shipping schedules, lock-down and uncertainty in the market due to COVID-19 and disruptions in overall global trade, said Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Anupriya Patel.
Notably, for several years now, India’s tea industry has been struggling with issues such as rising input costs, relatively stagnant consumption, subdued prices, and weak exports. The tea industry is expensive, with fixed costs accounting for 60-70 percent of total investment.
India’s tea sector employs around 1.2 million workers and contributes 23 percent of the global output. On efforts taken to promote the trade of Indian tea, the minister said: “It has been a continuous endeavour of the Tea Board and tea industry to strategize ways and means to ensure the quality of tea being exported from India.”