Russian Tea Delegates visits Darjeeling Tea Gardens

Hosted by the Tea Board of India, a delegation of journalists from Russia and Kazakhstan who are visiting the tea-growing regions of the country, arrived here on the last leg of their journey.
The seven-member team today interacted with the Darjeeling Tea Association and the local media, after arriving from Assam yesterday evening.

The delegation is being accompanied by Mr A Roychoudhary, Deputy Director (Plantation), Tea Board.

Russia, before its disintegration, was one of the largest buyers of Darjeeling tea. Today, the Russian market for Darjeeling tea is negligible, with the emergence of buyers in Germany, Japan and UK. There is hope in the industry here that the past scenario could be revived.

“The original Russian market used to buy even our rain-tea,” noted a tea planter here. Rain-tea is produced during the rainy season and is considered to be the most inferior grade of the industry. The tea is sold at less than quarter of the price obtaining for “flush-teas” – the premium variety – and is not meant for export market.

“Because everything we produced was bought by the Russians those days, we did not even have to focus on the quality of the product as we have to now. It will be good if the Russians agree to buy our rain-teas at least,” the planter said.

The delegation wanted to know why Darjeeling tea was so expensive and if its price could be brought down.

They also wanted to know on what parameters was Darje-eling tea considered to be better compared to other teas, like that from Indonesia.

Delegation members, speaking through an interpreter, said most of the tea consumed in Russia came these days from China, Japan, Vietnam. They also disclosed that the healthiness of tea drinking was being acknowledged in their countries.

The members complained about blended tea preventing tea drinkers from experiencing genuine quality.
“It is hard to get pure Darjeeling tea,” said a Russian member, while noting that most of the Indian tea available in Russia was from Assam.

The delegation today visited Thorbu and Takvar tea gardens. Tomorrow they are scheduled to visit Ging and Ambotia, where they are keen to see the manufacturing of organic tea, said Mr Sandip Mukerjee, secretary, DTA.

The guests include Ms Olga Papova, Ms Svetlana Olifirova, Mr Alexander Merman, Mr Maxim Evdokimov and Ms Olga Tikhinrov from Russia and Ms Larissa Uvaliyeva and Ms Irina Bazhenova from Kazakhstan.

Source> The Statesman