120th Annual General Meeting The Indian Tea Association held its 120th Annual General Meeting on September 3, 2003. The Hon’ble Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee presided over the meeting as Chief Guest. The occasion was also graced by the presence of the Chairman of the Tea Board of India, Mr. N. K. Das and other dignitaries from the tea industry. In his address, outgoing ITA Chairman Mr. Bharat Bajoria reiterated that the tea industry has entered into what is well recognised as the fourth successive year of recession. The crisis has deepened since and large segments of the industry continue to record losses and see progressive erosion of networth. He mentioned that India, in 2002, was among the crop-losers in the global arena of producers even as the world crop at 3,022 mkgs was up by 1 mkg than the level registered in 2001. While Sri Lanka, China and Vietnam witnessed higher crop since the beginning of the season, India, Kenya and Indonesia registered lower produce due to unusually hot and dry weather, he added. “The all-India tea production during 2002 experienced shortfall due to extremely unfavourable weather conditions in the form of abnormally dry spells in both north and south India and unevenly distributed rainfall in north India. The output of 826 mkgs during 2002 was 28 mkgs lower than that of the 2001 level and 44 mkgs below the 1998 level when India registered a world record in tea production. The Bought Leaf and Small Grower segments continued to account for around 20 per cent of all-India crop 14 per cent in north and 40 per cent in south India.”

On the dismal financial health of the industry, he said: “Reeling under severe pressure from consistently declining prices and increasing costs, the position of the industry further worsened in 2002. The all-India auction average in 2002 at Rs 55.95/kg reflected a decline of Rs 5.71/kg vis-a`-vis the 2001 level. Substantial price differentials at all auction centers were witnessed between quality and plainer teas. The decline in prices was mainly due to oversupply of plain variety of CTC teas and slowdown in growth rate in domestic consumption.” Mr. Bajoria informed that world Orthodox production in 2000-02 increased by 43 mkgs and exports rose by 85 mkgs in the same period, accounting for nearly 90 per cent of the total rise in exports. However, “on the Indian front, Orthodox production increased by only six mkgs in 2000-02. Considering the fact that Orthodox exports comprise about 70 per cent of world tea exports, the decline in India’s exports can be traced to the inadequate growth of Orthodox production. We have, in fact, become a very marginal player in the world Orthodox market.” he said. “On the CTC front, while India has the capacity to produce quantity and quality, it is not cost competitive as compared to its main competitor Kenya….The industry needs to balance the supply and demand of CTC teas in the domestic market by increasing exports.” Charting out the industry’s agenda to counter the present crisis, he said: “Boosting exports will be the main thrust of the industry. Inadequate growth in demand in the domestic market as well as lower prices will have to be countered through concerted efforts of generic promotion, cost curtailment and