“We have already met 63% of our 225 million kilogramme export objective for this fiscal year. Export volume price realisation is also good “He went on to say. If international issues such as geopolitical tensions resulting from the Russia-Ukraine war, container inadequacy, and high freight prices improve, tea export will increase further, he predicts. Former Tea Board chairman PK Bezbaruah stated that if the world economic situation returns to normal, the prospects for Indian tea is extremely positive. “Even in a challenging year like the fiscal year 2022-23, exports should increase by 25-30 million kg compared to the previous fiscal year,” he stated.

While some G20 countries, such as Russia, purchase a lot of Indian tea, China and the US are projected to buy more from India, according to him. “Even if the tea sector’s reliance on the G20 bloc is relatively low in comparison to India’s entire export basket, these nations are nevertheless crucial to us. This fiscal year, about 80-100 million kg of Indian tea would be sent to these nations “Bezbaruah explained. According to Pahari, India’s G20 presidency is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to demonstrate the country’s assets to the rest of the globe, and the board is going all out to market the beverage. “We will put up experience zones in the G20 ministerial meetings this year, where we hope to see a lot of people,” he added.

Tea Board India has been tasked with designing Indian tea taste and experience zones in Mumbai, Kevadia, Bengaluru, and Jaipur. After the epidemic, tea is viewed as a beverage with health advantages, and India should prioritise it, he says. Anshuman Kanoria, head of the Indian Tea Exporters’ Association, praised the Centre for promoting the product during India’s G20 chairmanship. “We appreciate the focus on tea at the G20 meetings, and we highlight the commodity’s history in India. We hope that this is the first move taken by the Centre to assist the business in aggressively promoting the beverage within the group of 20 nations “He stated.

The G20 presidency of India coincides with the FAO Intergovernmental Group (IGG) conference on tea in Guwahati in April. The quality and quantity of tea from crisis-hit Sri Lanka, a key producer of orthodox type, is “under doubt,” according to ICRA’s vice president Kaushik Das. “With the island country’s economic difficulties, Indian tea growers benefited in the 2022 calendar year, and moving forward, they must concentrate on retaining such benefits on a sustainable basis,” he added. Sri Lanka produces over 300 million kg of tea per year and exports approximately 97-98 percent of it. According to him, India produces over 110 million kg of orthodox tea, 90 percent of which is exported.

The non-placement of orders from Iran, a big importer of Indian tea, is unlikely to have a considerable impact, according to Das, because new contracts from the west Asian country are rarely done at this time of year, and they normally come in the second or third quarter. According to Kanoria, Indian tea was able to raise its market in a few countries such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia, which were typically purchasers of Sri Lankan tea.