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JANUARY 2015 07 06 JANUARY 2015
Till now the organized sector has been maintaining a constant growth with regular programmes of
uprooting and replanting. However, the small tea growers’ or outgrowers’ expansion has become huge.
They are likely to become as big as the organized sector and it is imperative that the industry bring
these new entrants in line with standard practices, usage of pesticides, manufacture and quality control.
An occasion such as this enables the Packers to come together and re-acquaint each other with the
features of our business.This, therefore, is as good an occasion as any to reassure them about what we,
as tea producers, continue to do to ensure that tea remains a beverage of choice.The key to remaining
competitive…and in business…is regular and planned reinvestment by replacing old tea bushes with
new and better plant material.This operation is imperative on two counts: (a) to enhance productivity
and thus help in reining costs and (b) to invest in quality planting material that delivers better value
to the need to also bear in mind that tea is, after all, an agricultural operation with the
vagaries of weather and other natural conditions adding a twist of uncertainty to our business. The
features of climate change are clearly visible and the tea planter’s challenge to deliver higher levels of
productivity and quality are considerable.
It is now as never before that we need producers, packers and consumers to come together for a
common cause, and one that helps us protect this remarkable gift of nature. Let the trade be just as
responsible for ensuring that good quality, safe and compliant tea is produced ethically and sustainably.
But let the trade also take the responsibility of ensuring that the producer/planter benefits from such
programmes and that he is provided a meaningful return beyond what inflationary and market trends
can compensate. A long term partnership model between producers and packers is essential where
sustainability continues to feature not merely as a buzzword but as an imperative that drives both our
businesses and allows us to graduate from a mere transactional relationship into a solid partnership.
As if these challenges were not formidable enough the tea producer’s lot is even harder when one sees
the fast changing socio-economic landscape in India. With greater employment opportunities and
rising aspirational levels leading to greater mobility of labour, the availability of workers in the tea
sector can no longer be taken for granted.
Unfortunately, the perception of the role and the status of the tea plucker varies around the world. A
Vietnamese small tea grower who owns his own plot cannot be fairly compared with a daily wage
temporary worker in India. With the advent of mobiles and TV, the socio-economic landscape is
changing fast in India and there is a strong pressure on the tea plantations to retain its workforce by
increasing wages and benefits to compare with those of other industries.Then, there are the minimum
standards from certification bodies that oblige us to provide our workers with living standards fit for
the modern age. However, the simple fact is that all this leads to an increase in the cost of production
and we producers must be compensated with long term loyalty from our buyers for meeting these
conditions.
Still largely reliant on manual plucking – which many of us would argue still makes for the best quality
tea – Tea is vulnerable to these changes and the introduction of mechanical plucking will be a major
task ahead.
I predict the time will come when it will be difficult to get pluckers to manually pluck tea.The new
generation of the workforce at the tea plantation is showing reluctance to work in the plantations and
venturing into new areas of work in urban areas. The shortage of workforce has compelled a few
plantation companies to mechanize their plucking operations, which obviously has its advantages and
disadvantages. Furthermore, with growing employment opportunities for our educated and qualified
youth, we are also facing a challenge in recruiting managerial staff who aspire to make tea planting
their chosen career. We are witnessing the signs on the ground today and we must prepare for the
future.
Even as we grapple with these challenges there is a need to grow our markets without which the tea
producer is not assured of adequate farm gate price realization to compensate for his efforts and ensure
a sustainable long term business. I therefore ask leaders of the tea trade assembled here to pause and
reflect on what should drive the tea business and make it sustainable for all the stakeholders in the
years to come.
Today, the tea market is spread over all the continents with varying demographic profiles of competing
products and beverages, and consumer preferences. It must be our collective challenge to be able to
understand these patterns and through them, keep Tea as a beverage relevant to the consumer. We
must not wait for the consumer to ‘grow’ into the middle-aged tea drinker but make it exciting for
the child and the youth to embrace this versatile beverage in all its forms – be it cold or hot, malty or
fizzy, green or black – but it must be TEA.
My thoughts…perhaps a trifle ponderous…were to present some of the challenges that tea producers
and the trade face today and the growing importance of jointly addressing them.
Almost 200 years ago these early pioneers set sail from ports in this land to establish an industry
several thousand miles away, that still provides many of us with a good living. I would like to therefore,
once again, acknowledge their contributions and the long and deep relationships between the UK and
the Indian tea industry and if I may say so…long may it prosper!
Friends, I was told that there are bets to be won on the length of my speech and for those on the
brink, let me not take any longer but end with a quote from a well known author, Okakuro Kakuzo,
who, in 1906, wrote (in English) ‘The Book of Tea’ in which he said: “Teaism is a cult founded on the
adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and
harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order.”
Tea Cheers and thank you for your patience.