The Tea Board of India is under fire from the industry over a garden gradation system it recently undertook.
According to its new grading, given for the first time, tea gardens in the Darjeeling area of the east have a lower grade than others. Darjeeling tea is known internationally for its aroma. It has the ‘GI’ tag issued by the Geographical Indications Registry for the special variety.
In the course of grading the 1,413 gardens across India, which the Tea Board recognises, none of Darjeeling have been accorded an ‘A+’ grade. Only one of its 87 gardens qualifies for an ‘A’ grade, 35 have been classified ‘B+’ and another 39 under ‘B’. Seventeen gardens fall under the ‘C’ category, one under ‘D’ grade and two get ‘S’ grades.
A senior Tea Board official said no Darjeeling garden was able to score A+ because there had been no replantation in these areas. The industry denies this.
Prateek Poddar, director of Darjeeling Impex and owner of the fabled Namring Tea garden, whose produce fetched Rs11,000 a kg at a recent private sale, says: “I can speak for my garden. At Namring, since 2009, we have already replanted 70 out of 450 hectares. How can someone say there has been no replantation in the region?”
The Darjeeling Tea Association has disputed the parameters and the methods used in the gradation. “The parameters are not convincing. We’ll write to the board and the Union commerce ministry on this next week,” S S Bagaria, the association’s president, told this newspaper.
Asked about the replantation parameter, Bagaria said it took seven to 10 years in Darjeeling for such a measure to yield any produce, while it takes much less time in Assam and South India.
Besides, produce per hectare from Darjeeling is low compared to these regions because of the inert quality of the soil, altitude and the plants.
Will a lower grading impact the high-value Darjeeling tea exports? “It is unlikely to affect exports or the prices. In the export market, people consider sustainability parameters and labourer welfare measures while buying the tea,” A N Singh, chief executive of Goodricke, one of the largest exporters, told Business Standard.
Industry officials say parameters like the Rainforest Alliance, quality grades like FSSC 22000 and ETP certifications, along with organic modes of production and non-use of child labour in the gardens are important parameters for international purchase.
Annually, although Darjeeling accounts for only seven to eight million kg (mkg) of export, of a total of 198 mkg, this tea variant fetches a substantial part of the $595 million foreign exchange inflow from the crop.
Industry officials say they commend the board’s initiative to grade the gardens to find out areas of concern but it needs to tailor the parameters for Darjeeling, noting the region's geographical uniqueness.
While the majority of Assam plantations use variants of the indigenous Camellia assamica variant, where yield is high, a majority of Darjeeling gardens use clones and cross-breeds of Camellia Sinensis or the original Chinese tea variant, where the yield is low but its quality surpasses other clonals.
By industry estimates, the average yield for the 18,155.23 ha under tea cultivation in the Darjeeling hills is 400 kg a ha. It is 2,000 kg a ha in Assam and elsewhere.
The Board has reasoned that the grading tool will help ascertain the reasons and shortcomings of a particular estate and steps can be taken to address these. “This will also help the gardens to know about wellness or sickness at any point of time and may be considered a precautionary measure,” a Board official told this newspaper.