Published on the occasion of International Tea Day, May 21

We spend a lot of time in this work thinking about systems. Supply chains, labour markets, trade policy, welfare schemes. And somewhere in the middle of all that serious, necessary work – someone walks in with chai, and the room becomes human again.

That small moment is actually what this piece is about.

Because tea, when you look at it closely, is not just a beverage or a crop. It is a living system – one that connects millions of livelihoods, shapes government policy, drives export earnings, and somehow still finds the time to make every difficult conversation a little easier. It does all of this quietly, without making a fuss, which is perhaps why we rarely stop to notice.

Today, on International Tea Day, we want to notice.

The Scale That Demands Policy Attention

India is the largest producer and consumer of black tea in the world, the second-largest producer overall, and as of 2024, the third-largest exporter globally (Ministry of Commerce and Industry, 2026). In 2025 alone, the country produced 1,369.98 million kg of tea – grown across 15 states, from the mist-covered hills of Darjeeling to the vast plains of Assam, from the Nilgiris in the south to the emerging belts of the northeast. Globally, the sector supports over 13 million livelihoods (FAO, 2026). In 2024-25, India exported 262.98 million kg worth approximately USD 923.89 million, with its top 20 markets accounting for over 88 per cent of shipments (Ministry of Commerce and Industry, 2026).

These are not background statistics. Every number here is a person – a grower, a plucker, a factory worker, a trader – whose income and dignity depend on how well this industry is understood and governed. When auction prices fall or monsoons fail or a major importing country tightens its residue limits, the effects don’t stop at the boardroom. They travel all the way to plantation colonies in Upper Assam and small grower clusters in Tripura.

Which is exactly why what happens next in this industry matters so much.

The Fault Lines Beneath the Surface

Here is something that rarely makes it into mainstream policy conversations: small tea growers now account for 52 per cent of India’s total production – 2,49,318 growers spread across 2,13,903 hectares, alongside 1,567 large estates (Ministry of Commerce and Industry, 2026). Globally, smallholders produce over 60 per cent of world tea output (FAO, 2025).

This shift is significant, and it is not without tension. Large estates have capital, infrastructure and direct market access. Small growers have numbers and resilience, but often lack credit, processing facilities and reliable price information. Organising them into farmer producer organisations is the right policy direction (Ministry of Commerce and Industry, 2026) – but in our experience, intent and implementation are rarely the same thing. When a grower in Assam cannot get a fair price for her green leaf, the consequences compound quietly, season after season, in ways that aggregate data simply does not capture.

And then there is labour – the part of this story that gets the least attention and deserves the most. The organised sector employs 11.56 lakh workers, nearly 58 per cent of them women (Ministry of Commerce and Industry, 2026). In many plantation regions, the estate is not just an employer – it is the school, the hospital, the housing colony. The Plantations Labour Act, 1951 mandates these provisions at the employer’s cost (Plantations Labour Act, 1951). In practice, they remain unevenly met. Schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Cha Shramik Protsahan Yojana are attempting to bridge this gap, with results that vary sharply by state (Ministry of Commerce and Industry, 2026).

This is the reality underneath the export figures. It is worth sitting with.

Growing More, But Earning Less Than We Should

India’s share of world tea production in 2024 was 18.43 per cent. Its share of world exports was 13.13 per cent (Ministry of Commerce and Industry, 2026). That six-point gap is not a rounding error – it is a value chain problem, and it has a policy solution if we are willing to pursue it seriously.

GI branding for Darjeeling, Assam Orthodox, Nilgiri and Kangra teas, a traceability system under development by C-DAC Kolkata, and the ongoing debate around the 50 per cent mandatory auction requirement under the Tea (Marketing) Control Order (Ministry of Commerce and Industry, 2026; Tea Marketing Control Second Amendment Order, 2015) – all of these point toward an industry at a crossroads. The question is not whether India can produce more tea. It clearly can. The question is whether more of the value that tea generates stays in Indian hands, and reaches the people whose labour makes it possible.

And Then, the Chai Break

Here is where we come back to where we started.

In our work – policy research, government advisory, stakeholder consultations – we have noticed something consistent: the most useful conversations rarely happen inside meeting rooms. They happen just outside, during the chai break. A senior official and a field worker, holding the same cup for a few minutes, outside the structure of the agenda. The hierarchy softens. Something honest gets said. A problem, sometimes, gets unlocked.

Chai Pe Charcha resonated so deeply with people across the country because it described something we already knew – that real conversations, the kind where people say what they actually think, tend to happen over tea (FAO, 2026; United Nations, n.d.). The United Nations General Assembly recognised this when it proclaimed May 21 as International Tea Day, acknowledging tea’s cultural, economic and social significance, with FAO designated to lead the observance.

Behind every cup is an industry of remarkable scale, facing real and complex challenges, employing millions of people who deserve better markets, better wages and better policy. That work is serious, and we take it seriously.

But so does the cup itself. And what it quietly makes possible – the conversations, the connections, the moments when the work stops feeling like work – is just as real.

Happy International Tea Day from our team.

References

• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). (2025). International Tea Day – Tea for better lives. https://www.fao.org/world-food-day/events/detail/international-tea-day—tea-for-a-better-life/en
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). (2026). International Tea Day, 21 May. https://www.fao.org/international-tea-day/en/
• Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. (2026, May 5). Indian tea sector: Production, trade, welfare and sustainability [Explainer, ID: 158446]. Press Information Bureau. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressNoteDetails.aspx?id=158446&NoteId=158446&ModuleId=3&reg=6&lang=1
• Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. (2015). Tea (Marketing) Control (Second Amendment) Order, 2015 [Gazette Notification S.O. 2688(E)].
• Plantations Labour Act, 1951 (Act No. 69 of 1951). Parliament of India. https://www.indiacode.nic.in/handle/123456789/2085
• Tea Act, 1953 (Act No. 29 of 1953). Parliament of India. https://www.indiacode.nic.in/handle/123456789/2175
• Tea Board of India. (n.d.). About us. https://www.teaboard.gov.in
• United Nations. (n.d.). International Tea Day, 21 May. https://www.un.org/en/observances/international-tea-day

Author: Dr. Isha Jain

Senior Manager – Government Advisory