Tea body plans promotional campaign in schools
Wed July 11 2018
Indian Tea Association, domestic
market, tea planters, exportable teas,
Tea Board Annually, there is an oversupply of around 100-120 million kg of tea
in India, said Azam Monem, chairman of ITA, the country’s oldest organisation
of tea producers. (Representative image)
Facing an oversupply situation in
the domestic market, Indian Tea Association (ITA) is planing to launch a
promotional campaign in schools in an attempt to get children to embrace the
brew with an objective to boost domestic tea consumption. Annually, there is an
oversupply of around 100-120 million kg of tea in India, said Azam Monem,
chairman of ITA, the country’s oldest organisation of tea producers. “We want
to start promoting tea with children. In fact, we are taking a full circle. We
have done it with youths, colleges, and now want do it through schools. In
India, we found a population of 350 millions, who do not drink tea and they are
all children,” Monem told a press conference here on Tuesday.
He, however, said the tea
industry would not be able to afford a pan-India promotional campaign unless
Tea Board comes in. “We asked for a full research and presentation from two
advertising agencies and a strategy is being worked out. The industry will fund
the promotion and we will approach the Tea Board. The campaign has to be fit in
with school calendar,” Monem said.
According to him, the industry
has been going through a patch where there is abundance of production along
with escalating costs. “In the last five years, prices have been virtually
flat. All India average tea auction price was at Rs 132.23 per kg in 2013,
while the same was at Rs 133.11 a kg in the last year. This is due to
oversupply situation,” he said.
In order to deal with the
oversupply situation, ITA has urged the government to carry out massive generic
promotion campaign in order to increase domestic consumption and increase
exports subsidy so that tea planters can produce more exportable teas. Tea
Board’s recent study has revealed that domestic tea consumption stood at 786
gms per person annually, but that consumption level hardly helped the industry,
Monem added.
Source: https://www.financialexpress.com/