Word: indianism
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...chairman Sanjay Bansal, who says he has turned around 11 dying tea estates. "That's how I'm able to demand ridiculous prices for my teas." Darjeeling tea, for instance, can be sold for up to 10 times the typical $3.54 per lb. ($1.61 per kg) for other Indian teas, and Ambootia's Brumes d'Himalaya, a "first flush," or spring-harvest, tea, sold at a high-end boutique in Paris two years...
Appealing to high-end consumers abroad and to the increasingly discerning tastes of the booming Indian middle class is a top priority for India's teahouses. The Tea Board of India won "geographical indication" status from the World Trade Organization for Darjeeling tea last year and is pursuing similar recognition for Assam tea, prized for full-bodied blends like English breakfast, and for the aromatic, copper-colored Nilgiri tea from southern India. Tea producers are experimenting with delicate white teas, which are less processed and contain more antioxidants than black teas, and oolongs, which fall midway between green and black...
Using a strategy that has worked well for Sri Lankan producers like Dilmah, Indian firms are taking their teas straight to consumers by marketing directly online. Assam Co. also opened the popular Camellia chain in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) this year, and Soongachi Industries has launched Infinitea, a hip, upmarket tea bar in Bangalore that sells more than 70 brews. Soongachi's Rishi Saria, 30, gave up a software-engineering job in Bangalore to return to Darjeeling and take on marketing for the family company. His cousin Gaurav Saria now heads Infinitea. "Our generation is focusing on improving our quality, product...
...Saria family and other tea producers are getting some help from the Indian government. State research institutes have committed $18 million to developing higher-yielding seeds and machinery to suit small growers, and the government is looking at introducing electronic auctions to make transactions faster and fairer, especially for the little guys. An additional $41 million fund gives tea producers incentives to process tea as more desirable--and profitable--long leaves rather than as granules...
...industry, of course, depends on its workers. The Plantation Labor Act of 1951 guarantees not just a minimum wage for workers in tea, coffee and rubber but also housing, education, medical care and drinking water. Those benefits add about 11% to production costs and are the main reason Indian tea costs about $1.62 a kg to produce, compared with $1.23 in Sri Lanka, $1.16 in Kenya and 84¢ in Malawi. Strong unions in India's tea-growing regions have fought to preserve those benefits. Tea-estate workers are paid on average $1.38 a day in northern India...