Drought + epidemic situation Darjeeling black tea production in India continues to rise

Under the impact of the dry weather and the COVID-19 epidemic, the harvest season in India's important tea-producing areas is facing the double threat of declining production and stagnant tea production, which may cause tea prices, which have already risen for a wave, to continue to rise.

As the Indian government tries to prevent the epidemic from spreading to 800 tea-producing areas across the country, the Indian Tea Association said at least 90 tea gardens in Assam, an important tea-producing region, had reported confirmed cases and many declared closed areas, according to the FT.

About 500 confirmed cases have been confirmed in Indian tea gardens, but tea farmers say more tests are needed to know the true scale of the epidemic.

Tea farmers warn that failure to control the epidemic could hit the tea harvest season and push up prices. India is the world's second-largest tea producer after Chinese mainland.

Assam and West Bengal are important producing areas of Darjeeling black tea, both of which have reported a surge in the number of cases of COVID-19, and experts say local elections held in these two regions have contributed to the spread of the epidemic. Labor groups blame the sharp increase in diagnoses on the narrow working environment in the tea garden.

India's tea industry is suffering multiple negative blows, from unstable weather patterns caused by climate change to last year's blockade that led to a suspension of tea harvests for several weeks.

Falling production pushed Indian tea prices to record highs last year, giving Kenya and Sri Lanka a competitive advantage in the tea export market. Idoniboye, an analyst at Mintec, a commodity data company, said the recent blow to India's tea-producing areas would give tea-producing countries such as Sri Lanka an opportunity to sell more tea to big tea consumers such as Russia.

The severe drought is threatening tea growth in Assam and northeastern India, which is exacerbated by the epidemic. Tea trader Reese said that North India produced 47 million kilograms of tea in March, higher than last year, but still lower than the 60 million kilograms harvested in the last "normal year" in March 2019. According to Mintec, tea sold at auction in Calcutta, India, for 287.5 rupees a kilogram in April, up more than 40 per cent from a month ago.