CALCUTTA, February 23: There you are, sipping a cup of tea and reading this report. So you want to know more about tea, and may be even visit a Darjeeling tea garden. So do it - without the hassles of packing your woolies and booking air tickets.Just type in http://darjeelingtea.com on your Internet browser, and a few clicks of the mouse will get you all you need to know about how tea is plucked, manufactured, tasted - and even details for the budding tourist in you.
Hosted by the Darjeeling Planters Association, the recently launched website of the planters' forum is the latest market promotion aimed at boosting demand for this premium variety of tea. From Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to tourism in Darjeeling; from a newsletter to links to related sites around the world; from a history of the tea to snippets about all the gardens in the district - it's all there. And in case you are drinking Darjeeling tea, you can check out if your cuppa is elite enough to prefix the "Darjeeling" name.
The needfor a web page was clear: Darjeeling tea growers are struggling to get remunerative prices, and the annual production of 10 million kg has hardly increased over the last 30 years. The 1997 crop was even less, at 9.5m kg. Prices too have hardly moved up, when compared with orthodox varieties. Against increases of 45.7 per cent for orthodox tea and 36.37 per cent for CTC, Darjeeling varieties have moved up by just 17 per cent. The main problems are the low demand and restricted clientele. About half the production of Darjeeling tea is exported, with the first and second flush tea being favoured by foreigners. The domestic market accounts for the rest, mostly the post-second-flush or rains crop.
It is the export market that the DPA hopes to revive with the website. But other Indian tea growers without plantations in Darjeeling also expect to get a boost.
"The Indian tea market will piggy-back on the information on Indian tea, as Darjeelings constitute the premium segment," says a non-Darjeelinggrower.
Most Darjeeling tea majors are drawing up blueprints for the generic promotion of the variety aimed at customer-specific markets. They are also contemplating a national branding of this variety in the light of the large and untapped potential in the Indian market, possibly via a consortium. The brands will be given high-visibility slots at airports, tourist spots and hotels, highlighting the exclusive nature of the Darjeeling varieties.
Darjeeling tea suffered a severe setback in the early nineties following the disintegration of the Soviet block, its biggest market. A recovery of sorts has been made with exports to Germany, Russia and Iran. The Indian government is aiming at aggressive promotional campaigns and a global awareness of Darjeeling teas to check the increasing use of this name by unethical sellers.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
