The price of Indian tea is expected to rise due to the drought epidemic.

In addition to commodities, the prices of other commodities also continue to rise. India, the world's second-largest tea producer, is facing the threat of falling production and stagnant tea production, threatening to push up tea prices again, hit by severe drought and worsening epidemics.

The epidemic in India continues to heat up, and foreign media reported that as the Indian government tried to prevent the epidemic from spreading to 800 tea-producing areas across the country, the Indian Tea Association said that at least 90 tea gardens in Assam, an important tea-producing region, had reported confirmed cases and there were many declared closed areas. Tea farmers warn that failure to control the epidemic could hit the tea harvest season and push up prices.

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.

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.

Severe drought is threatening tea growth in Assam and northeastern India. Tea trader Reese said tea production in North India in March was 47 million kg, higher than last year, but still lower than the 60 million kg harvest in March 2019, the year before the outbreak. 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.