GUWAHATI: Blame it on the tea cup that consumption of tea is plummeting. Analysis of falling tea consumption has come up with a bizarre conclusion: It is because most tea vendors in the country are using smaller tea cups to keep prices stable in the face of rising prices of milk and other items.
Guwahati Tea Auction Buyers’ Association (GTABA) secretary Dinesh Bihani told this newspaper that there are changes in the volume of tea production due to climate change. “Climate change has impacted the quality of tea in some months when the temperature is very high in tea-growing areas. Sometimes, due to sudden heavy rainfall or uneven rainfall, there are changes in the volume of tea production,” Bihani said.
“However, we feel that there may be another reason for less demand (of tea) because of the surge in prices of milk and other items. Various eateries, such as street shops and dhabas, have reduced the size of tea cups despite no changes in the pricing of tea,” he observed.
He said this largely affected the consumption of tea “which is not on a higher side”. “Some companies doing business in cold drinks provided refrigerators to lakhs of shops to increase sales. We asked the Tea Board to take some steps to increase the consumption of tea,” Bihani said.
“We suggested that it can provide tea-making machines to small outlets, including those selling cold drinks, at subsidised rates. It will help increase tea consumption,” he added. Assam tea, worth nearly ` 2,300 crore, has been sold at the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre so far during the current financial year.
Year 2023 marked the 200 years of Assam tea.