Global companies, the majority of them from the EU, have been buying Darjeeling tea recently, driving up prices for the commodity despite previous economic conditions such as the Euro banking crisis and the US housing foreclosure crisis. Currently, Darjeeling tea fetches anywhere from US$64 to US$129 for the leaf variety in the EU market and costs around US$0.23 cents/kg at auction price, according to Tea Board statistics.

In addition to aggressive buying by the global companies, the poor conditions recently encountered by the region and the subsequent massive decline of tea production have aggravated the situation.