India ranks as the largest tea country in the world thanks to the "professional tea auction system".

Many people do not know that India is the fourth largest tea exporter in the world, with annual exports exceeding US $800 million.

The key to the brilliance of India's tea industry is that the British have established a professional tea auction system for more than a century.

According to the General Administration of Business Intelligence and Statistics (Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics) of the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry, India is the fourth largest tea exporter in the world, after Kenya, China and Sri Lanka, with tea exports of US $830.9 million and US $826.47 million in fiscal years 2019 and 2020, respectively.

In addition, India ranked the second largest tea producer in the world in fiscal year 2019, with an output of 1.3 billion 39.7 million kilograms. At the same time, India is also the world's largest tea consumer, accounting for about 3 million of India's tea production.

From the British colonial era, in order to reduce the purchase of tea from China, after the failure of transplanting Chinese Lingnan tea to India in 1774, the British used Hakka and Guangdong immigrants to grow tea in India's Dajeeling and Assam provinces with similar climate and humidity, and planted tea varieties in the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra River, which laid the foundation for India's tea industry in the 1880s.

But for the Indian tea industry, a more important development was that the British colonists founded the Indian Tea Industry Association (Indian Tea Association) in Calcutta in 1881, set up the first tea-making joint-stock company in London, and then established an open and transparent tea auction system, which made India's tea industry grow to its present scale.

After the establishment of the tea auction system, there are about 10 tea auction companies in India, among which the outstanding one has become the largest and oldest tea auction company J Thomas & Co Pvt Ltd in the world. From the on-site bidding in the past, now as long as you register and pay the relevant fees, you can participate in the tea bidding through the online platform.

Arjun Singh Deo, senior general manager of Thomas Tea auction Company, which has been engaged in tea auction for 21 years, said in an exclusive interview with the Central News Agency that Thomas Tea auction Company, formerly known as the British Indian Tea Trade Center in Calcutta, has a history of 150 years, and 200 million kilograms of tea are traded through this auction platform every year.

At present, a total of 2000 kinds of tea are auctioned on the platform, including Darjeeling Tea, CTC (CTC is the tea industry production method, that is, rolling, chopping and rolling), authentic tea (orthodox tea, mainly sold in the Middle East) and tea powder (Dust tea).

Diou pointed out that the key to transform the tea industry from a family business in the past to a modern commercial and international industry lies in an open and transparent professional auction system.

He said that the reason why Thomas Tea auction Company has been able to stand for more than a hundred years, in addition to the long-term reputation established in the past, is more important from the professional auction procedures for selecting, brewing, drinking tea and writing reports on the price of tea varieties.

Diou said that the company currently trains and employs 4 or 50 professional tea appraisers. Through the company's long-term training, the tea price evaluation report must be completed in 10 to 15 days. Tea samples and price evaluation reports will be sent to all customers participating in the auction two days before the auction day, and finally, on the auction day, customers will be able to bid for the desired tea according to the tea samples received and the price evaluation report.

In addition, Diou pointed out that Thomas Tea Auctions also provides professional advice to tea makers from all over India, including advice on the cultivation of tea varieties according to the climate and humidity of tea producing areas. It also provides professional advice on tea production procedures, such as tea harvesting, cutting, baking and flavor mastery, machine purchase and main customer-level goals, to guide tea makers to stabilize the production and supply of tea to the market.

Under the professionalism and reputation established by Thomas Tea auction Company for a long time, large Indian or international enterprises, including India's Tata Group and Unilever, are frequent bidders on the auction platform of Thomas Tea auction Company. after the preferred tea under the bid, they pack and sell the tea by themselves, or export it to other major international tea brands.

India's tea industry occupies a leading position in Asia through an international and modern tea auction system. However, Diou said that because tea auctions require a local government license, as well as a high degree of credit and credibility, customers and tea merchants can be persuaded to conduct large transactions through this platform; transnational operation is more difficult, but Thomas Tea auction Company still receives visitors from all over the world to provide professional advice.

With regard to Taiwan's tea industry, most of which are still in the form of family-made tea, a small-scale peasant economy and no modern tea auction system, Diou said he would be happy to provide professional advice to visitors in Taiwan.

In order to promote cooperation in the tea industry between Taiwan and India, Liu Jian, director of the Office of the Trade Association in Calcutta, has called on Diou many times to explore the possibility of bilateral cooperation.