UN General Assembly declares May 21 as International Tea Day every year

Kolkata, 14 December (HS): The Rs 30,000 crore of Indian Tea Industry which is passing through a bad patch for the past few years in terms of an overall growth,primarily because of stagnancy in prices,is now looking for a bright future ahead following the declaration of May 21 as the ‘International Tea Day’ by the United Nations General Assembly after a long wait.

Announcing this great development for a better growth and acceptance of the global tea industry, involving as many as 90 odd countries including major producers like China,India,Sri Lanka and Kenya among others,Deputy Chairman of Indian Tea Board,a state agency of the Union government, Arun Kumar Ray and Indian Tea Research Association,Secretary, Joydeep Phukan told Hindusthan Samachar here this evening that following the recommendations of the (World) Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) since 2015 the UN General Assembly had now finally  recognised the importance of  promoting ‘a sustainable growth and development’ of the billion dollar tea industry of the world and declared May 21 every year as the International Tea Day.

This recognition would go a long way towards creating a  greater public awareness on the  importance of tea also for rural development and create a sustainable livelihood for millions of  people associated with the industry worldwide including in India,Ray said and claimed that it would also greatly help to improve the value of tea and its cost to make them at par of its top class quality.

Asked about the overall scenario of the Indian tea industry which employed about 1.1 million people and is currently growing about 1350 million kg of  different kinds of tea every year to meet the demand for domestic as well as the export market, Ray said though the tea production was being increased at a healhy rate every year to meet the increasing demand,because of the stagnation in prices, a large part of the industry continued to remain non viable at present.

He also called for a fresh look into the whole scenario by the government as well as the industry itself so that necessary steps could be taken to increase the production at the rate of 30 million to 40 million kg every year without increasing the overall cost of production to help increase the prices.

The increasing cost of labour force coupled with the growing cost of production were hampering the  desired growth of the industry, he said replying to query and hoped that with a possible bright future lying ahead(following the declaration of International tea day) Indian Tea industry would soon be able to experience a turnaround both in terms of growth in value chain and exports, which currently stood at around only about 250 million kg annually.

About  other countries  both Ray and Phukan were of the opinion that since China, so far the largest producer,was currently producing around 26 million kg of tea every year with their entire production being consumed within the country itself.On the contrary both Sri Lanka and Kenya  exported their entire productions, they said replying to another query.