India can secure the future of its faltering tea industry only by learning from the past

Ask someone which country has the highest per capita tea consumption and their answer most likely will be China. It is the world’s largest producer by far, with 3.18 million tonnes made last year, and is seen as the place from where tea consumption spread across the world. On September 25, 1660, the British diarist Samuel Pepys wrote, “I did send for a cup of tee (a China drink) of which I never had drunk before...”

After China, number two would seem to be India, the world’s second largest producer, with 1.36 million tonnes. This is the home of chai, tea brewed with milk and sugar, a drink rapidly spreading in popularity across the world, much to the bemusement of Indians who encounter it as Chai Tea Lattes. We have a prime minister who famously claims to have sold chai as a child and who liked to have cosy televised chats called Chai Pe Charcha with the nation.

In reality, in terms of per capita tea consumption, China and India rank quite low. The German data company Statista in 2016 put China at 21st position with 0.57 kg tea consumed per person and India at 29th with 0.33 kg per person. The world leader is Turkey...

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