India's tea exports increased by 4.2 per cent during the first seven months of the current financial year to Rs 2,318.07 crore mainly on account of rise in value of shipments to Pakistan.
In terms of value, the country's tea exports to Pakistan increased to Rs 93.24 crore in April-October period of current fiscal from Rs 69.47 crore in the year-ago period.
In terms of quantity, India's overall exports increased by 7.25 per cent to 119.25 million kgs from 111.19 million kgs in corresponding period.
The provisional tea exports data released by Tea Board of India has pegged exports of the beverage at 119.25 million kgs, valued at Rs 2,318.07 crore during 2015-16 (April-October), while the export during the corresponding period last year was 111.19 million kgs, valued at Rs 2,224.54 crore.
Increase of tea exports was seen in major tea-importing countries like Russia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, the UAE, Iran and Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, tea production registered a marginal decline of 0.69 per cent during the same period to 946.49 million kgs from 953.59 million kgs during the April-October 2014-15 period.
This decline was mainly attributable to the fall in South India's production.
Tea production has been low so far mainly due to unfavorable weather conditions and wages issues have also hit tea producers hard.
During the year, there have been reports of labour migration to other industries rather than staying at the tea gardens on account of issues related to quality of life and wages.
India is the world's second-biggest tea producer and also one of its largest consumer. The country exports CTC (crush- tear-curl) grade tea to countries like Egypt, the UK, and other traditional varieties to Iraq, Iran and Russia.
Tea plucking in India mainly picks up between July and October.
The two aspects in common are taste and flavour which
even tea-tasters and blenders need to keep foremost in mind, said Kapur, who has been in tea industry for over 40 years.
Varadaraj said, "We in India prefer strong type of teas and that is the reason we always use dust teas, whereas people abroad prefer mild and good flavoured teas and that is why they always use leaf teas."
"Of late people's preferences have changed from normal CTC dust tea to green tea, since it has lot of antioxidants and people have become health conscious," he said.
When asked about the fun of pursuing the art form of tea-tasting, Kapur, who launched a unique blend of floral Darjeeling tea and a select strong full-bodied Assam tea at the recent Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in Mumbai, said, "Our primary role is to search for exotic flavours in natural tea found in so many varied producing areas and gardens."
He said as the terrain and weather changes, the flavour of tea also changes. For example, original teas plucked and manufactured in Nilgiri are distinctly different from those produced in Darjeeling or Kangra.
The art of tea-tasting can only be learnt by working at grassroot levels, he said adding that in-house they taste over 1,000 samples each week which come from various places.
"In India, we have now started to enjoy exotic fruits and vegetables and cuisines with varied flavours. Drinking exotic teas with varied flavours is one of the outfalls of this experiential change. Overseas in the western and the Asian world, tea is revered for its varied characters and not just dealt with as a 'wake me up' cuppa," said Kapur, who has tea boutiques in Delhi, Gurgaon and Mumbai.
He also said that tea-tasting remains a niche profession and as long as people are passionate about tea, tasters like him remain passionate in pursuit of exotic teas.
Author T Damu, who held senior managerial positions with the Tata group and has written a book titled 'The Story of Tea', said no doubt tea drinking is increasing all over the world and is considered a 'health beverage'.
Nowadays, green tea is slowly becoming more popular, he said.
"Tea growth has increased, but labour prices are on the higher side. Several plantations in South India are finding it difficult to survive. Unless the government comes forward with remedies on taxation part, it seems a difficult phase for the industry," Damu said.
