The Green Tea that I love drinking

This article has also appeared in the last issue of The Tea Times
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Green Tea – have we found the right type for the Indian/Western consumer ?
In a country that consumes over 800 million Kgs of tea, there is virtually NO consumption of Green tea.
The past decade has seen some changes that are affecting the consumption pattern of tea in India:
i) Increase in the consumption of Orthodox.
ii) Rise in Darjeeling tea consumption.
iii) The interest/enquiry in Organic teas has increased tremendously, and there is a dramatic increase in the demand of these teas. This is a segment that will grow (as a percent of increase in consumption) many times more than demand for other teas.
iv) Health benefits of tea are being discussed across the higher-end segments and that is where the awareness of Organic teas’ added benefits are taking place.
v) This has also increased the discussion of Green tea’s health benefits.
But in spite of this shift, Green Tea consumption has increased only marginally. So I started looking at the reasons for why the consumer in India was not taking to Green Tea ? The best place to start was myself (I am possibly the highest consumer of tea in the world – between 2500 to 2900 ltrs of tea in a year and doing so for almost 4 decades. (Thank God I am in the tea industry…) Because of the pesticide load that I carry over this heavy consumption for 36 years, I now drink mainly Organic tea – Green, Orthodox, Darjeeling, Oolongs & CTC (with Milk + sugar). Why did I take to Green tea only very recently? That is where I began looking for the answer.
This lead me to some high-end consumers of flavoury orthodox (including Darjeeling) teas that are drunk without milk and sugar. What came out across most of the consumers in India was that they did not like the ‘fishy smell’ that most of the green teas have. However, the consumers in Eastern Asia are actually very fond of that particular characteristic of green tea, and would not have it otherwise.
So I worked at identifying what contributed to that ‘fishy flavour’ in the manufacture of green teas. After having found the reason we managed to reduce this flavour and even eliminate it, by making small changes to the processing parameters (yet keeping the steaming process). When the same consumers were given this Green Tea they preferred it to the earlier one and some of them have started developing a taste for these teas.
I then looked at some Western European consumers and gave them the two different teas and they too preferred the new Green Teas. This confirmed the consumer preference in India and the western world, and explained, to some extent, as to why the growth of Green Tea was not much in these areas.
Now we are seeing a lot of growth in the demand for these Green Teas. I also got some Green Teas manufactured in this manner in Indonesia and these too have been very well received. Suddenly the high end consumer and the health conscious consumer is finding a tea that is very healthy and that he likes the taste of. And I have replaced 7 to 10 cups, out of my daily intake of black teas, with Green Tea.

Harki Sidhu

East Java - Tea estates

Note the last sentence . This is the sign board at the Yogjakarta airport

In Jakarta. They call it 'Suharto's last erection'

Market Scenario - Indian Tea Industry

Market Scenario - Indian Industry
National Scenario
Internal consumption has grown from 785m in 2006 to 810m in 2007. This means a growth of 25million kgs YOY (year on year). This rate of increase in consumption (if it can be sustained) will change the whole scenario.
Crops are not going to exceed 1000m over the next 7 years because of the following reasons:
a) The STG sector has almost peaked. The area under tea is not increasing significantly.
b) The organized sector’s crop has been on a slow decline. There is nothing being done different to expect a change in this trend.
c) The thrust on quality will possibly reduce crops as a whole.
d) Labour constraints, specially in South India, will adversely affect development work & crop
e) The increase in Orthodox will mean net reduction in ‘cuppage’ (Ortho vs CTC is 250 vs 500). This in itself will reduce available / real ‘cuppage’.
Production - 960 m
Consumption: estimated as of 2007 -
Internal - 810 m
Export - 170 m
TOTAL - 980 m
So there is already a shortage of 20 m. Where will YOY increase of 25 m come from?

International Scenario
There is likelihood of reduction in exports – with this shortages in supply the demand will increase & the internal prices will rise - higher that what export markets will provide for similar teas.
This will encourage the quality producers to sell internally & the poorer teas will languish in India as there will be no export demand for them.
Under WTO the import duty will have to be lifted on tea (within 2 years or so) and this will be the biggest threat to the industry. Low cost producers (China, Vietnam, etc) will price out the poorer teas out of the internal market.