DARJEELING, West Bengal
The most lucrative season for Darjeeling’s growers is the spring flush which produces a distinctive, light-colored, aromatic tea favored by Europeans.
This season, a dry spell since December has lowered yields of the fragile first flush teas as much as 40 percent. Production in West Bengal fell to 17.53 million kg compared to the 18.20 million kg harvested during the first three months of last year.
High-altitude tea bushes need between three and four inches of rain from October through March when the new leaves appear. Now that rain has returned the harvest is in full swing, but production overall is down 30 percent through April.
Demand, however, is down with France experiencing a disruptive political season, Germany struggling to prop up Greece and Spain, and England in recession.
Sanjay Bansal, chairman of the Ambootia Group, the second-largest producer of Darjeeling, told the Economic Times this week that European countries “have cut down their import quota by 30%. We are unable to supply high quality tea to supply to these countries as well. It's a double whammy for us. There are mixed quality teas now which are not attracting foreign buyers."
Tea production throughout India declined by 13 percent through the first quarter, according to statistics provided by the Tea Board of India. Production was 82.29 million kgs, down from the 94.39 million kgs India harvested during the same January-March period in 2011.
The Tea Board reports Assam’s first quarter harvest was 19.86 million kgs (down from 27.18 million kgs) and that in South India, tea production declined to 44.77 million kgs, down from 48.84 million during the first quarter of 2011.
Source: Tea Board of India, Economic Times