The Rajah of Darjeeling Organic Tea: Makaibari

Books

By Rajah Banerjee

Foundation Books/Cambridge University Press

ISSN 978-81-7596-605-5

Makaibari tea Estate lays claim to being the first tea estate to be established in the Indian Himalayas. Founded by a Captain Samler, a former officer in the British army who debunked in protest at the harsh treatment Indian soldiers were forced to suffer, the estate was seeded with tea plants "liberated" from tea nurseries established in Kurseong and Darjeeling in the 1840’s. In 1859, Samler bequeathed the by now prosperous estate to a young entrepreneur, Girish Chandra (G.C.) Banerjee, whose holdings in the area had already earned him a fortune. Makaibari’s current owner is Rajah Banerjee, the author of this lavishly illustrated book. He is a direct descendant of G.C. Banerjee.

Boseong organic status

Korea

Green tea from Boseong County, South Korea, has been granted organic certification from the Control Union World Group in the Netherlands, declaring it to conform to additive-free and natural qualities espoused by the European Union, the US Department of Agriculture and Japan Agricultural Standards.

Of 19 green tea farms that applied, 18 were awarded the certification. The certified farms account for 11% of the 1,363 green tea growing farms in Boseong.

Boseong green tea is exported exclusively to the US, but farmers believe the new certification will allow them to penetrate new markets elsewhere

Boseong has signed memorandums of understanding with five companies in Germany and France to export green tea, but the lack of a certification has delayed exports until now.

Darjeeling tea suffers

India

The premium first flush Darjeeling teas offered last March earned Rs937.50/kg (US$19.60/kg), in European markets, a drop of 25% compared to 2008 when the same type of tea fetched Rs1,250/kg.

"Nearly 85% of high quality first flush tea is exported to European nations.," according to Sanjay Bansal, chairman of Darjeeling Tea Association. "Germany is one of the biggest buyers of Darjeeling tea. Since there is a liquidity crunch in the European countries, the buyers are not keen to pay last year’s prices." Premium first and second flush Darjeeling teas are historically the best opportunity Darjeeling estates have to earn a profit. Around 10 million kg of tea is produced in Darjeeling, but about 50% of this is low-earning, lower quality rains tea that mostly ends up in the domestic market.

Tea exports high in 2008

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka earned a record US$1.23 billion from tea exports in 2008, up from the US$1.02 billion earned in 2007, according to a statement from the Sri Lanka Tea Board.

"We benefited from the global commodity boom, which saw our teas fetch some of the highest prices, till early September," Tea Board chairman Lalith Hettiarachchi said.

Colombo’s tea auctions saw prices as high US$4.26/kg between January and September before falling to around US$2.20/kg as the global economic crisis bit.

Lower oil prices and unfavorable foreign exchange rates, particularly for key Russian buyers, saw Sri Lankan tea prices collapse in the fourth quarter of 2008.

New facility for tea

Dubai

The Dubai Tea Trading Centre (DTTC), a division of the Dubai Multi Commodities Center (DMCC), has unveiled its new centralized tea storage, blending and value addition services as part of its expansion plans to accommodate the growing activities of the centre. The new facility was inaugurated by Jamal Majid Bin Thaniah, executive vice chairman, DP World and Group c.e.o., Ports Customs World, and Salma Ali Saif Bin Hareb, c.e.o. Economic Zones World. The 23,731 square meter facility in Jebel Ali Free Zone also includes office space for regional and international tea companies.

DTTC’s new facility offers services across the entire value chain of the tea industry ranging from storage, tea tasting, blending, packaging as well as networking opportunities leading to increased trade. The new facility also provides dedicated individual storage space, free storage for a limited period of time, and temperature-controlled blending and packing facilities for a wide range of teas under one roof.

Q1 tea output drops 7%

Kenya

Hot, dry weather in regions east of the Rift Valley, home to much of Kenya’s tea production, is being blamed for a 7% decrease in tea production in the first quarter of 2009.

The Tea Board of Kenya estimates that production dropped to 65.8 million kg from January to March, down from 70.7 million kg produced in the first quarter of 2008.

Dry weather is also being blamed for decreased first quarter crop sizes in other large black-tea growing countries, according to the Tea Board, citing a fall of 41% in Sri Lanka’s output to 30.3 million kg in the first two months of the year, and reported declines of 13% in Indonesia, 12% in Bangladesh and 7% in India.

But Kenyan tea exports rose 14% to 93.8 million kgs in the first quarter compared with the same period a year earlier when supplies were affected by a wave of unrest initiated by post-election violence.

Printed Edition

Quarter 4, 2011

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