Darjeeling Tea Prices

A notification banning blends of imported tea in GI-tagged teas has almost pushed Tata Consumer Products, the biggest buyer, out of the market

Scanty rainfall, last year's lockdown, growing competition from Nepal and the disaster of the 2017 Gorkhaland agitation are steadily weakening exports and sales of Darjeeling tea

The pandemic has got people spending time and energy making themselves a cuppa. Know more about tea and its tribe, some trivia and how to get the perfect brew

The tea industry, hit by rising costs, falling prices and political unrest in the North Bengal plantations, is especially vulnerable to the Covid-19 lockdown

In 2017, following the Gorkhaland agitation for separate statehood, the Darjeeling tea industry was totally shut for the entire prime season

The Darjeeling tea industry is estimated to be losing at-least Rs. 120 crore every year as cheap leaf imports from Nepal, which continue unabated under the free trade agreement (FTA), is being passed onto consumers as Darjeeling tea at a premium.Industry officials estimated the Darjeeling tea industry's annual market size to be more than Rs. 600 crore which could have crossed the Rs. 700 crore mark had India not been importing tea from its Himalayan neighbour.One of the costliest teas in the world, Darjeeling's Indianised camellia sinesis is produced in limited quantity at just above eight million kg (mkg). Quality and limited availability of this tea keeps the average prices higher than the Assam or Nilgiri variants. However, the price is bound to fall if supply of this variant increases in the domestic market; and it is here that Nepal or Himalayan tea is playing the spoilsport.Industry estimates suggest that around 2-2.5 mkg of Nepal tea enters India through the legal route under ..

A number of experts feel that luxury tea prices would remain upward this year