Tea News and Biz Insight - April 9, 2021

HEAR THE HEADLINES – A Sparkling Future for Fizzy Tea | Bubble Tea Drinkers Froth Over Drinking Straw Ban

| Vahdam Tea Partners with Goodricke Group | Starbucks Introduces Rent-a-Cup

| GUEST – Supriya Sahu, managing director of INDCOSERVE, a cooperative of 30,000 tea farmers producing 14 million kilos of tea annual in the Indian State of Tamil Nadu.

| FEATURES – This week Tea Biz visits the Nilgiri tea growing region in South India where the INDCOSERVE tea farmer’s co-operative has harnessed the creative and collective energy of 30,000 small farmers....and we discuss the challenges of timely tea delivery in the new harvest year with Jason Walker, spokesperson for Firsd Tea, the US division of the largest green tea supplier in the world.

Waking a Sleeping Giant

A money-losing federation of small grower co-operatives in Tamil Nadu, the largest of its kind in India with a history dating to 1965, languished for decades before a leader emerged with a singular message: produce tea that builds the lives of farmers and a better future, she said. “That’s our ambition to transform an organization that was a sleeping giant into one that can show the world that a small growers’ organization can be the best among the best.”

Tea Delivery

Early harvests in China, India, and Kenya sent new teas to market early this year – a fortunate head-start. Unlike last year, labor availability is good despite COVID-19 restraints, tea regions report fine weather, and orderly processing is raising expectations of a bountiful crop. Two obstacles remain. Transport is stretched to the breaking point as reinvigorated economies stir from pandemic weariness. The second hurdle is cost. Wholesalers, retailers, and importers that last year bore the weight of spiking prices must now make up for lost earnings. Expect significant price increases for both specialty and commodity teas for the foreseeable future. In this segment Jason Walker, spokesperson for Firsd Tea, the US division of the largest green tea supplier in the world, discusses challenges impeding timely tea delivery.

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