The Asian Tea Alliance (ATA) announced in April 2019 in a memorandum of understanding (MOU), an agreement to act rather than a formal plan, between the main industry and policy organizations in five tea-growing countries: Indian Tea Association, China Tea Marketing Association, Indonesian Tea Marketing Association, Sri Lanka Tea Board and Japan Tea Association. It is representative of the trend towards co-opetition as critical to the future of tea growing in an era of climate change, global overcapacity, disappearing operating profit margins, and labor and social turmoil.