"It is a Tea story"

 

Let it be a day or evening, a celebration or mourning, meeting a friend or an alien, Indians just can’t avoid their “Tea”.  Yes, the penetration of tea is massive in the nation’s households that no matter what people take their time to enjoy their perfectly seasoned “chai”. Today, lets open to know more about “behind the scene” on how the tea comes to your hand before you slurp them off.

Let’s begin with the cultivation; Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are the four major tea plantation hubs in India; especially in Kerala and Tamil Nadu the tea is grown and harvested throughout the year. In most cases these tea plantations are owned by small growers, large growers and in certain cases even by the MNE’s who sell them to the consumers. Exclusively we will look deeper into the tea supply chain that the small and the large growers undergo.

The cultivators begin to harvest with the process called plucking where the healthy tea leaves are collected by the plantation workers. The gathered tea leaves are withered to make it more flaccid by removing any moisture within them. Following which the leaves are rolled by machines to activate and release the locked oil and the enzymes within the leaves which is not suitable for the beverage making. At last fermentation happens followed by drying.  The dried tea leaves are sacked together and are made ready to reach the warehouses. But this isn’t the case for the small cultivators, the manufacturing process of tea requires land and machinery setup which pinches their affordability and hence they highly rely on the Bought Leaf Factories (BFL).  BLF is the third party stakeholder who do the processing of tea leaves for the small growers.

The next big step is the auction house where the auction is conducted by Tea Board India, Overall there are 9 tea auction centers located at Guwahati, Coimbatore, Coonoor(2),  Cochin, Amristar, Jalpaiguri, Siliguri and Kolkata. The major players of the auction are;

• Auction Organizers
• Seller
• Auctioneers
• Buyers
• Warehouse keepers

Auctioneers collect the sample from the warehouses and let the buyers to test and taste. Buyers are the bidders who on the other hand pick their preferred tea that suits their taste and price. At the end the highest bided buyer collect the tea from the warehouse which being accounted by the warehouse keeper. Throughout this process auction organizers are the ones who regulate the process of auction. Finally, tea undergoes branding and packaging before it reaches the primary distribution channel which initiates the steps of reaching the end consumer.    

Along with strong value chain a cup of tea never forgets to bring a humble joy with its every sip. Now it's time to watch some relaxing and beautifully captured "feel good" stories. One tells us how tea brought wings for a couple to fly while another speaks how innovative a tea kettle could be. 

#Happy_Tea_Time # Happy_Learning7

-Roobaswathiny A