Tension brewing as price of tea to spout up

BARRY’S, Lyons or even a nice cup o’ Darjeeling for the tea connoisseur! The Mrs Doyles of the nation may soon find it hard to chant, ‘Ya will, ya will, ya will’, because of the threat from the coronavirus.

Lockdowns in the world’s biggest tea-producing regions threaten global supplies, which means the cost of the daily brew is set to rise.

Buyers are scrambling to secure stocks of leaves as the pandemic strikes plantations in Kenya and other African countries. It has already hit major producers in India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia and lovers of premium teas such as Darjeeling face the biggest increases. Already the first harvest of those leaves has been missed, and prices may rocket. When a strike hit Darjeeling supplies two years ago, market prices went up from €35 per kg to €175. ‘We would expect to see the same level of increase if coronavirus affects tea harvests in the coming months,’ one expert predicted. Richard Smith, owner of the Kent and Sussex Tea and Coffee Company in England, said: ‘This is a nervous time for the market. It is highly likely the chaos of coronavirus will affect the everyday price of a cup of tea.’

Some 71% of Irish people still love their cup of tea, despite the trend of coffee shops in our town centres, and we drink between four and six cups a day.

After a sharp increase in sales since the lockdown, companies are anxious to keep up with demand, though the effect of the latest price rise might be cushioned if firms had already stockpiled before Brexit.

Dave Walsh, of Farrer’s tea and coffee merchants in Cumbria, added: ‘There has been some hysteria among traders and we are being watchful at the moment.’

Kenya is currently in lockdown although shipments are still leaving the port of Mombasa.