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04 JANUARY 2015
JANUARY 2015 05
L
adies and Gentlemen, Chairman and members of the Tea Trade Dinner Committee,
It is indeed a privilege to have been asked to address the Tea Trade Dinner this year as I would be the
first to acknowledge that there are many in this room whose years of experience in the industry far
outweigh mine.
What I have is an abiding and continuing passion for the beverage, coming as I do from a family that
has invested in Tea for several decades. My father, Mr B.M. Khaitan, who has just marked his 50th
year as Chairman of our Company said, “Tea is not merely a commodity for us. It is heritage based
on values and culture, full of sentiment and commitment.” Our constant endeavour is to make sure
that we are a sustainable business and do everything possible to deliver this wonderful beverage to
consumers around the world.
I am therefore delighted to have this opportunity to share a few thoughts with you.
Being present amongst you in London is an opportunity to dwell on the strong links between England
and India in our industry from its origins in the 1800s.Many of you might be aware that the botanist,
Joseph Banks, sent tea seeds sourced from China to the Botanical Gardens in Calcutta. It was indeed
Banks who asserted to the Directors of the East India Company that serious efforts should be made
to cultivate tea in India as an alternative to China.
In 1833, the Lord Bentinck Tea Committee proclaimed the Crown’s concurrence with its mercantile
lobby in London and concluded that the discovery of tea in Upper Assam was “by far the most
important and valuable that has ever been made on matters connected with the agricultural or
commercial resources of the British Empire.”Around the same time, Robert Bruce was first introduced
to the Assamica version of wild tea by a Singpho Chief and he, along with his brother, Charles, the
first Superintendent of cultivation, observed in 1838 that “all Singpho territories are overrun with
wood jungle and if only the underwood was cleared…they would make a fine tea country.”
I recount this history only to underscore the excitement and the pioneering instinct that drove people
from this land to travel to a distant and largely unknown India and establish the framework of a vibrant
industry that thrives today…almost 200 years later…and whose existence many take for granted. We in
the industry today salute those early pioneers and recognize their contributions. Today, many Indian-
owned businesses still proudly bear the names that reflect their British origins and heritage.
London Tea Trade Dinner -
Mr Aditya Khaitan’s Speech
Tea continues to be the beverage that dominates the consumer landscape both in India and the United
Kingdom – though its position in this part of the world presents worrying trends. Tea imports into
Britain continue to be flat…if not suggesting marginal declines. Good Assams were once an integral
part of an English Breakfast cuppa in the UK which may well have led to capturing consumers over
coffee. Sadly, good Assams, even though costing the same as half a century ago (due to the repeated
devaluation of the rupee) are now a rare commodity in blends.Therefore, has this ‘lesser’ cup taken away
from the consumers, turning them to other more satisfying beverages? Have we now lost the ‘bite’ in
our cups to ‘malty’ and ‘fizzy’ beverages?
Another piece of evidence of the shifting sands in Tea is the closing down of the Tea Auctions in
London which was the Centre of the Tea World. On the other hand, the Calcutta Auction established
in 1861 continues to thrive, registering a sales volume of around 170 million kg in 2013 and adapting
into a modern electronic auction centre in 2009 with the aim of reducing transactional time and costs.
Recent reports in the UK suggest a resurgence of Afternoon Tea and the growing demand for products
with a visible provenance, new product variants that strictly do not belong to the Camellia Sinensis
family such as herbal infusions etc.The challenge therefore is to take steps to arrest the decline in the
mainstream black tea market and bring in new drinkers.
Satya Nadela, the Indian born software professional, last year addressed an email on his first day of
taking over as the CEO of Microsoft and, among other things, he said, “While we have seen great
success, we are hungry to do more. Our industry does not respect tradition – it only respects
innovation.” I found this comment of Satya’s very interesting. We in the Tea industry are steeped in
tradition, have seen glorious days in the past but are viewed to be slow in adopting new ideas.The key
to continued success and sustainability of the industry is the hunger for
innovation.We
in the industry
have to think and act differently so that we may hand over our businesses to the next generation in
robust health.
Today, Indian tea is a thriving business. Our annual production is 1.2 billion; our domestic
consumption is around 900 million kg and growing at 3% a year. India is a young country and with
growing prosperity there is likely to be still further local demand for tea.
Geographically spread over many provinces with varying agro-climatic conditions, Indian tea
continues to reflect a variety that is unmatched in any other parts of the tea-growing world. The
industry also reflects widely disparate forms of ownership – corporates with multiple holdings as also
small proprietary ownership with one or two plantations in their stable. Adding to all of this is the
phenomenal growth of small tea growers that have mushroomed since the mid-1990s, changing the
socio-economic landscape until now characterized by subsistence level agricultural operations.