Theres a joke which often does the rounds in the corridors of J. Thomas & Co, the Calcutta-based tea auction house. It goes thus: "You dont get the best Darjeeling even in Darjeeling." For long, this was the bitter truth with the Tea Board turning a blind eye to global marketing companies importing, blending and selling the classy tea as their own brands. Hopefully, the practise will soon be history.
The Tea Board has announced a special trademark scheme for Darjeeling. At a licence fee of $250, plantations registered in the Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong belt will be provided with a label to protect them from unlawful competition from the varieties now sold globally as Darjeeling.
Not just this, the Calcutta-based Darjeeling Planters Association (dpa) has launched an aggressive campaign to let global tea buyers know that "Darjeeling tea is only from India and not Kenya or Sri Lanka". "Weve tolerated this for long. Darjeeling will now protect its brand," a senior dpa official told Outlook. dpa recently hired advertising agency Equus to build a common brand it claims will be used by all producers and marketers of Darjeeling tea.
Industry insiders say annually 40-45 million kg of tea, mostly produced in Kenya or Sri Lanka, are sold globally as "genuine Darjeeling". Ironically, Darjeelings official production figure is 10-11 million kg. "Most bushes there are over 80 years old. So the yield has dropped. The actual production could be 5-6 million kg," says Chandrachur Dasgupta, intuc leader of the Tea Plantation Workers Association.
The board authorities feel that the long-term effects of their move to protect Darjeeling tea from piracy will be considerable. It will protect Darjeeling-based exporters. Besides, the board feels the licence raj will yield global dividends: people across the world will have the taste of genuine Darjeeling tea, demand will pick up and so will exports.
The board proposes to instal a rigorous monitoring exercise to ensure things dont go wrong. Plantations covered by the scheme would have to produce, process and manufacture tea in a local factory. Regarding blends drawn from more than one plantation, the trademark will be used with the term "blend" or "blended" as in "Darjeeling blend" or "blended Darjeeling". So much for the authentic brew.
