A farmer plucks tea leaves in a garden at Moronga village, India, July 19, 2022. (PHOTO / AP)

A return to pre-COVID popularity for Indian tea in China could see the sector play a pivotal role in bringing the countries closer together, according to experts from both sides.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out India's tea exports to China have decreased. The amount reduced from 11.44 million kilograms in 2020 to 5.78 million kg in 2021 and 4.94 million kg in 2022, according to data from the website of the Indian Tea Board.

This is a serious cause for concern among Indian tea traders, tea experts, and other stakeholders, who want to put in serious efforts to make inroads into China’s tea market.

Xiao Juan, general manager of Beijing Dongli Garden International Trade Co Ltd, said that black teas from India, specifically Darjeeling and Assam, are increasingly finding acceptance among Chinese consumers.

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India – the world’s second-largest tea producer after China – is now producing both high-quality and diverse teas, such as white tea and oolongs, she said, adding that Indian tea gardens have come a long way in the last 10 to 15 years on a recent visit to Darjeeling tea gardens in West Bengal. 

The Chinese tea connoisseur first visited the Indian tea gardens in 2006 intending to promote Indian tea in China. She has a large auditorium and classroom in Beijing where she frequently conducts classes for Chinese tea enthusiasts about Indian teas.

Despite its reported popularity, Indian tea has suffered in recent years. 

India and Sri Lanka, the two largest exporters of black tea to China, have faced contrasting fortunes during the pandemic.

Sri Lankan tea exports to China have remained constant while Indian tea exports to China are declining, said P. K. Bhattacharya, secretary-general of the Tea Association of India. 

To meet its growing demand for black tea, China is shifting towards Sri Lanka and Kenya. 

Both countries are making serious efforts to increase exports and have initiated various promotional activities, said Sujit Patra, a leading tea expert and former Secretary of the Indian Tea Association, the oldest tea producer and exporter body in India.

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Sri Lanka has improved its exports to the Chinese market from 8.5 million kg in 2016 to 15 million kg, Patra said.

Before COVID, Indian delegations used to attend tea exhibitions in China to showcase Indian tea while Chinese delegations used to come to India to buy quality Indian tea, said P. K. Bezbaruah, a former chairman of the Tea Board of India.

But since the pandemic broke out, visits by tea traders and other stakeholders between the two countries have stalled, Bezbaruah noted.

Government support by Sri Lanka and Kenya helps their export of more tea to China, said the Chinese Consul General in Kolkata Zha Liyou.

In this undated file photo, Indian and Chinese national flags flutter side by side at the Raisina hills in New Delhi, India. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

Strong marketing strategies and government incentives can help traders to promote Indian tea in China, Zha noted, but people from both parties need to travel to each other's countries.

While Indians are again visiting China after the pandemic, the number of Chinese visiting India is much lower due to the difficulties in obtaining Indian visas, the consul-general said.

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Travel should be easier and there should be direct flight services between the two countries, Zha added, adding that he hopes flight services between the two countries will resume soon.

Another issue is that Indians visiting China do not know how to market or sell the product or where they should go to sell it while Chinese tea traders visiting India also face a similar problem, said Xiao, the tea importer. There is also a lack of knowledge regarding each other’s tea, she added.

The increasing number of delegations both ways and tea trade fairs held in both countries can play an important role in strengthening the people-to-people contacts over improving the tea trade, Pahari added

To address this, Xiao proposed the creation of a “China-India tea channel” that would connect Chinese buyers with Indian suppliers.

Another problem is that Indian sellers are not keen to explore the Chinese market, she said. 

For instance, every year in Shanghai there is a large tea exhibition that brings together buyers and sellers from every tea-producing country but, the delegation of the Tea Board of India (TBI) or Tea Association rarely attends the exhibition, Xiao said. 

From technology and machinery to agriculture practices and processing units, the Chinese tea industry is miles ahead of its Indian counterpart, said Rajiv Lochan who first exported Indian tea into China in 2004. 

Lochan has visited China several times and participated in major tea exhibitions and tea expos in Xiamen in Fujian province, Shanghai, Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, Kunming in Yunnan province, and Changsha in Hunan province.

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Lochan also noted that China has a wider diversity of products than India. Thanks to research and development alongside innovative techniques, China produces around ten thousand varieties of tea, Lochan said. 

Nayantara Palchoudhuri, a fourth-generation tea planter and chairperson of the Indian Tea Association, said the Chinese tea industry is innovative and has developed many modern technologies through research and development. 

One such innovation is climate-resilient tea gardens. 

“We can also introduce smart plantations. We want to learn modern technologies and innovation from China,” Palchoudhuri said.

It will be beneficial for the Indian tea industry to learn from Chinese pratices, said Indian Tea Exporters' Association Chairman Anshuman Kanoria.

In India, tea is the cheapest drink after water while in China, tea is a culture and tradition, said Kanoria.

Chinese consumers pay the highest price in the world to buy Chinese tea, he added, noting that China has managed to make an excellent market in their own country even for their high-end specialty teas. 

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Although the demand for Indian tea has been very high in China, supply has been constrained due to the COVID lockdown in India’s tea plantations in 2020 and the subsequent logistical obstacles to shipments, such as a huge shortage of containers and high freight charges in 2021.

The ripple effect continued in the first part of 2022 but with the improvement in the availability of containers, especially the twenty-feet containers, and moderation of ocean freight during 2023, shipments to China are expected to rise in the coming months, said Saurav Pahari, deputy chairman of the TBI. 

The increasing number of delegations both ways and tea trade fairs held in both countries can play an important role in strengthening the people-to-people contacts over improving the tea trade, Pahari added.

The writer is a freelance journalist for China Daily.