 "Tea Board on promotional drive to increase per capita tea consumption")
To increase per capita consumption of tea, the government-owned Tea Board of India has initiated promotional efforts with an estimated expenditure of Rs 54 crore. The board has allocated Rs 29 crore for domestic promotion and Rs 25 crore for Tea Boutiques abroad.
With an estimated over 1200 million kgs of output, India is the largest producer and consumer of black tea in the world, but not the largest per capita consumer. India ranks 43rd in the global ranking in average per capita tea consumption with 0.73 kg compared with 7.54 kgs in Turkey, 4.34 kgs in Morocco, 2.74 kgs in United Kingdom and 1.01 kgs in Pakistan.
“Though tea enjoys over 90% penetration among India's population, it is generally perceived to be an ‘addictive’ beverage. There is lack of awareness about the positive health benefits of tea. In order to dispel myths about tea and increase its popularity amongst the youth, Tea Board is in the process of formulating massive domestic promotional campaigns,” a detailed action plan chalked out by the Tea Board of India.
The promotional efforts are seen through participation in trade exhibitions, global seminars. In fact, Tea Board of India has booked 108 sq metres of exhibition space in the upcoming 4th World Tea & Coffee Expo 2016 (WTCE) scheduled to be held in Mumbai between October 20 and 22. The Tea Board has doubled its exhibition space in this event from last year.
Moreover, the Board felt that tea is not considered to be an aspirational beverage among the youth of India. In order to dispel myths about tea and increase its popularity amongst the youth, Tea Board is in the process of formulating massive domestic promotional campaigns, it added.
The principle objective of these domestic promotional campaigns would be to reinforce the image of tea in the minds of the rural Indian populace, as well as promote tea as the preferred beverage among the upwardly mobile middle class urban youth. To this end, Tea Board has come up with a new mantra, which aptly describes the feeling of well-being one has after sipping a cup of tea.
Meanwhile, India’s tea output in June is estimated to have risen on favourable climatic condition. “We see some improvement in tea production in June following favourable monsoon rainfalls,” said a senior official from the Tea Board of India.
India’s tea output declined by 18% to 99.56 million kgs in May after 14% slump was recorded at 67.21 million kgs in April.
With the expo becoming the definite platform for the hot beverage sector to meet and transact business deals, the Tea Board of India has doubled its pavilion size for 2016 as compared to 2015. This reflects not only the strong growth potential of the Indian markets but also of the board’s commitment to ensure healthy growth of the tea sector.
Tea Board of India is at the forefront of making India the leading producer and supplier of quality tea in the global market and also works towards the upliftment of this vital sector encouraging use of latest technology, devising export policies, ensuring labor welfare and spreading awareness on sustainability issues. A few initiatives of the Board include accident insurance scheme for plantation workers, launching of e-auction to bring uniformity in rules across all auction Centres and fetching better prices to sellers/growers, participating in WTCE, encouraging farming of Tea in newer areas like North India etc.
Source: Industry, Wikipedia| Per capita consumption of tea | |
| Country | Quantity (Per KG) |
| Turkey | 7.54 |
| Morocco | 4.34 |
| Ireland | 3.22 |
| United Kingdom | 2.74 |
| UAE | 1.89 |
| Kuwait | 1.61 |
| Russia | 1.21 |
| Iran | 1.07 |
| Pakistan | 1.01 |
| India | 0.73 |
