West Bengal plans to make Darjeeling tea brand hotter
The West Bengal government is planning to launch marketing and support initiatives to help global customers regain confidence in the ‘Darjeeling tea’ brand. The move comes in the wake of tea producers in Darjeeling losing prime production seasons, thereby creating a severe scarcity in global markets.
Last year, after the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha called for a shutdown demanding separate statehood, which lasted for over 100 days, the tea production in Darjeeling came to a halt. Tea producers alleged that such sudden unavailability of Darjeeling tea globally posed serious questions among global buyers on the future availability of the tea and, hence, renewed marketing efforts were needed after production commenced.
Though the state government is yet to decide on the exact nature of branding support, Vandana Yadav, managing director at West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation, said the state government intended to create around 30 brands of Darjeeling tea that would become the flag bearers of this industry.
She was speaking on the sidelines of an event organised by industry body CII here. Darjeeling tea is the first produce from India to obtain a globally-recognised Geographical Indication (GI) tag and logo. This brand of tea cannot be sold without the GI tag and the logo. Using the ‘Darjeeling tea’ brand for any other tea blend apart from the one produced in Darjeeling, is illegal.
Yadav said, “The details are being worked out on how the state government can help in branding initiatives since it already has a GI tag”.
Additionally, the state government will also help the industry in better price and market discovery. The key markets of Darjeeling tea account for Germany, Japan, the US, the UK and others.
Sources said the state government might identify selected estates that produce quality tea with a good global order book and help in branding initiatives of the produce from such gardens. The Centre has also narrowed down on a similar plan where it proposes to identify one or two companies that can become the flag bearers of the Indian tea.
Industry officials, however, want the state government to support them monetarily and have asked for a grant.
“The gardens had remained closed and we had lost nearly the entire year’s crop with no fault of ours. Now we need to pay wages, bonus and others and need the state government and the Centre to support us”, a Darjeeling tea estate owner said. The industry believes that besides monetary help, branding and marketing support is also needed for it to regain buyer confidence. If the state helps increase the global buyer base and mediates selling prices, it will lead to Darjeeling tea fetching better prices in the international market.