Tea industry in hot water over financial stress and production woes

While tea prices remained stagnant, wages of tea garden workers increased significantly in the past five years

Depressed prices, coupled with a decline in production in 2023, have heightened the financial stress of tea estates, as reported by the Indian Tea Association (ITA) on Thursday.

In a statement, the tea producer body said that the Indian tea industry has been grappling with an acute financial crisis for the past few years, as tea prices have failed to keep pace with the increasing cost of production.

It highlighted that Indian tea prices have exhibited a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 4 per cent over the past decade, while the costs of essential inputs like coal and