Political unrest in Darjeeling may hit tea industry

12 Jun, 2008, 0059 hrs IST, Sutanuka Ghosal, ET Bureau

KOLKATA: Political unrest in the Darjeeling hills has added to the woes of the tea industry, which has suffered a 30% slump in production in first and second flush teas since the beginning of the new season. The industry fears it may suffer losses in 2008 if the movement of teas from gardens to trade destinations is stopped because of the political unrest.

Darjeeling, which has 87 tea gardens, produced 9.5 million kg of tea in 2007.

Senior officials of the Darjeeling tea industry told ET: “Though the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) has exempted the tea industry from the bandh, transport availability for carrying tea to the auction centres and warehouses has been hit by the bandh. Besides, if such sporadic unrest continues, it will be difficult for tea companies to smoothly carry out day-to-day operations.”

“Our members are yet to engage in any dialogue with GJM. We are observing the situation,” said a senior official of Darjeeling Tea Association, the apex body of the Darjeeling tea industry.

To compound matters, the monsoon has already hit Darjeeling. Once the rainy season commences, the Darjeeling tea industry starts producing rains teas, which fetch lower prices in the domestic and international markets.

“As there has been lower production of first and second flush teas which garner good prices, the industry has been unable to earn much. It is difficult to market rains teas and if the transport system is affected due to political unrest, the situation will get worse,” a Darjeeling tea producer said.

“The movement of fertilizers and packaging materials to gardens and transportation of processed tea outside Darjeeling and Dooars have already taken a severe hit, courtesy the GJM shutdown,” said a tea trader from Darjeeling.

“This is sending wrong signals to the market. If the unrest continues for long, it will seriously affect the revenues of the companies,” said a senior official of Goodricke Group.

Apprendre le thé à Darjeeling

le 11/6/2008 à 17h40  par Nina Casal

10 000 tonnes de thé Darjeeling sont produits chaque année.

Débarquée en Inde le 9 mai, Audrey Dreyer, 20 ans, effectue un stage avec deux atres amies françaises pour Lochan Tea Company, une entreprise qui fabrique et commercialise du thé sous le célèbre label Darjeeling. Mais à leur arrivée, deux surprises les attendaient. D’abord, l’entreprise se trouve à Siliguri, une petite ville du Bengale Occidentale, aux pieds de l’Himalaya. Plantations de thé à perte de vue, végétation luxuriante : la région est magnifique, mais la ville quelque peu coupée du reste du monde. “Les débuts ont été assez durs. Nous sommes loin de notre famille, dans un environnement magnifique, mais à l’écart de tout. Nous nous sommes habituées, mais nous sommes bien contentes quand nous pouvons parler un peu français”, raconte Audrey.

“Notre deuxième surprise fut que l’entreprise nous a proposé de nous former au commerce du thé”, ajoute-t-elle. Cette jeune étudiante en première année de BTS Commerce International à Caen ne s’attendait en effet pas à retourner en classe pendant les deux mois de son stage. Son école lui demande de faire de la prospection, mais trois fois par semaine, elle assiste à des cours dispensés par des experts de l’Institut for Plantation Science and Management, un centre de recherche qui dépend le l’université du Bengale occidental. “On visite des champs de thé, on apprend la dégustation, les méthodes de fabrication et de commercialisation”, explique-t-elle.

Une formation que l’entreprise dispense afin d’assurer une promotion internationale de son thé. L’année dernière, un jeune Français avait aussi été formé ici. De retour en France, il a monté sa propre entreprise d’importation de Darjeeling. “L’objectif de l’entreprise est clairement que nous puissions ensuite travailler avec eux. Pour l’instant, je vis une très bonne expérience et ce sera un atout pour ma carrière, mais je ne sais pas si je me lancerai dans le commerce et la fabrique de thé”, déclare Audrey.

Le champagne des thés noirs constitue pourtant un marché prometteur. 10 000 tonnes de thé Darjeeling sont produits chaque année en Inde, dont 80% sont destinés à l’export.

http://aujourdhuilinde.com/actualites-inde-apprendre-le-the-a-darjeeling-1553.asp?1=1

French students brew business in Darjeeling…

A budding tea school in West Bengal’s Siliguri town teaches students how the business of Darjeeling tea works…

Kochi: Three students from France, the world’s biggest producer of wines, are treading through tea estates in West Bengal studying the business of Darjeeling tea, considered the champagne of the east. Over two months, the three students will learn about processing, tasting and marketing Darjeeling tea, at a budding tea school in Siliguri, a hill town by the Himalayas.

 

“We had heard a lot about Darjeeling tea and wanted to explore the land that produced it and know the people behind it,” says Legastelois Marine, a student of international trade from Lycee Bremontier University in Bordeaux.

 

Added flavour: (From left) I.D. Singh, director of the Institute for Plantation Science and Management, with French students Legastelois Marine, Dreyer Audrey and Galaud Marjorie.

 

“There is a growing market for tea in France and the rest of Europe,” adds Galaud Marjorie from the same university. “When we get back, we will look at getting jobs in the tea industry after completing our studies.”

 

Dreyer Audrey, also a student of international trade, at the Lycee Fresnel University in Caen, hopes the hands-on training will help her land a job. “I don’t want to limit myself to France and would like to try my hand at jobs outside the country as well,” she says.

 

The tea school started last year with one student, as part of an effort to promote premium Darjeeling tea globally, says Ankit Lochan, director of Lochan Tea Co., which runs the school. “Our buyers worldwide complained about a dearth of professionals trained in the tea business,” says Lochan.

 

The school’s first student, Vincent Moreau from Paris, had approached Lochan last September to learn about Darjeeling tea. Over four months, Moreau was trained in all aspects of the tea business—cultivation, blending, tasting, packaging and marketing.

 

He returned to Paris and set up the Darjeeling Luscious Tea Co. and a speciality Darjeeling tea shop, directly importing tea leaves from India.

 

Lochan Tea is now set to train seven more students this year—five from France and one each from Australia and England. “Next year, we hope to have more than 25 candidates,” says Lochan.

 

The company is devising a formal course in consultation with experts from North Bengal University’s Institute for Plantation Science and Management, which runs a course in tea management. The tea school charges $300 (about Rs12,800) for the two-month course and plans a $1,000, six-month course from next year.

 

“The exercise will have a spiralling effect in promoting Indian tea globally,” says I.D. Singh, director of the plantation science institute and a resource person for the company’s training. “The ones we train will not only carry the word around, but also help set up marketing channels for exporting Indian tea worldwide.”

 

“The big bane of Darjeeling tea has been that promotion started very late. By then China and Sri Lanka were already there,” says Ronen Dutta, who was secretary of the Darjeeling Planters Association for more than 23 years till 2002. “There has not been sufficient education on Darjeeling tea, its special features, and why it is sold at a higher price. This venture of Lochan will help change the perception that this tea is not just any other brew to be drunk as part of a comfortable habit,” Dutta added. Like champagne is not just any other wine.

 

The Indian tea speciality got a boost last year when it earned the geographical indication (GI) status, a global recognition of its exclusive quality and characteristics that can be attributed solely to the region in which it is grown.

 

Darjeeling tea gets its particular flavour from the Himalayan region, where it is grown at an altitude of more than 3,000ft above sea level. At that height, the atmosphere has less oxygen resulting in more oxidants in the tea leaves, says Lochan.

 

Darjeeling tea, with its distinctive flavour, fetches between $4-9 per kg, depending on the quality, while other regular tea varieties are sold for $1-1.5 per kg. India produces around 10,000 tonne of tea in Darjeeling, of which more than 80% is exported.

 

http://www.livemint.com/2008/06/08224743/French-students-brew-business.html

 

Paris…

Ankit landed into Paris today morning to attend a market survey. It is very important to know what people like and need before we sell teas in a market. And this can be done in the local water only.

We have been test marketing teas since 2004 and after my 2005 visit we accelerated the pace of our tea educational drive in France.

Let’s think more deeply and objectively.

Wanderers….

Marcus Beuer from Germany & Daniel Sprague from England were in my office yesterday to further the spead of tea education in the white world. We seems to be recreating what Robert Fortune did 150 years ago or rather earlier by the sea farers starting Marco Polo & Bosco de Gama.

Marcus’ three year old daughter was in my office last week and we immediately made a bond of international brotherhood. So naive and so cute, she opted to stay back with us, but the mother would not leave her. She is studying in India now as the parents wish to make India their second home.

Dr. ID Singh…

An ex-TRA plant pathologist, he is probably the best scientist we can have at the moment as he is heading the North Bengal University Tea department, which is the only Government recognised institute in India to impart tea education.

Yesterday the students were taken to Giddapahar Tea estate in Darjeeling for teaching tea manufacturing and finess of plucking associated with it.

Happiness….

Association of tea with wellness, happiness and heath are so natural like this laughter.

Siliguri…

Siliguri is very strategically located to ratchet up not only the local economic growth, but also that of the entire North-Eastern region of India. With the upcoming specialized economic centres in the form of an exclusive Food Park, Tea Park, Health City, Information Technology Park, Small Engineering Park, Inland Container Depot, several multi-utility and township projects, Siliguri further offers to be the spring-board for India’s economic development in this part of the country.

While tea has always been a conventional export items, there is further scope for development of the local export market by way of harnessing the potential here. The same can be done through development of food processing industry based on such raw materials as jute, tea, rice, wood, silk, medicinal plants, fruits and vegetables among others.

West Bengal being boasts of one of the best road infrastructures. A pioneer in power development, NASSCOM-Gartner has found West Bengal’s power infrastructure to be the best in the country. Backed by a superb connectivity and stable power situation, North Bengal with its lush forest and tea gardens has always been a big draw for the domestic and foreign tourists. Be it the honeymoon spot of Darjeeling or the beautiful national sanctuaries spread over Jalpaiguri-Cochbehar region, North Bengal continues to beckon the tourists to come in huge numbers to relish the ‘Slice of Heaven’ in this part of the country.

Tourism, as an industry, not only has the potential to generate a lot of employment for the region, but also to be a great revenue earner for the country, with multiplier effects for rest of the economy.

SJDA has always been instrumental in the development in North Bengal by provisioning not only the requisite infrastructures, but also by facilitating all the developmental and investment initiatives in the region. One just hopes that all the potential investors shall take advantage of the abundant opportunities available here.

Qiandao Hu…

Two hundred kilomters south-west of Hangzhou in Zhejiang is Chun’an county known as “One thousand islands” – a paradise on earth.

I read about it in the tourist guide in my hotel in Hangzhou last time and immediately made up my mind to go there.

Dreams come true.

Tartary Buckwheat Tea…

Everybody knows Japanese gan mai cha, the green tea with roasted rice, but a parallel invention by mixing buck wheat with the green tea or simply infusing buck wheat is yet another noble experiment.

In Hangzhou Richard Wang, my young friend claiming to have duplicated Darjeeling in Sichuan/Yunnan, showed me this. We tested Buck wheat, Buckwheat mixed with green tea, Tie guan yin, Darjeeling and Yunnan gold black tea and found the infusions getting darker and darker from simple buck wheat to black tea passing thru green and oolong teas.

Use of rice or wheat alongwith the tea is a great idea developed during the warring periods of Japan, when the fighting soldiers were always on the run and did not have time to cook properly. Just drinking Gan Mai Cha was more nurishing and answer to their needs at that time.