The Index

2026-07-19 Sri Lanka Launches Ceylon Tea Village Programme, Eyes 400 Million Kilograms by 2030 Colombo's new cluster-village scheme sets a 2030 output target of 400 million kilograms and US$2.5 billion in exports, roughly $1 billion above the current run rate. 2026-07-18 Sri Lanka's Priciest Orthodox Teas Go Unsold at Colombo's Sale No. 27 High-priced Western orthodox and rotovane lots found no buyers for lack of suitable bids at the July 14-15 auction, even as broader grades held steady and China's Ceylon tea imports slipped for a second straight reading. 2026-07-17 An Assam Estate Sells India's First Batch of Matcha Chota Tingrai Tea Estate's opening matcha lot cleared the Guwahati auction at Rs 3,000 a kilogram, a decade after the estate began building a Japanese-style production line, making Assam the first Indian producer of a product still supplied almost entirely by Japan, China, and Vietnam. 2026-07-16 Kenya Courts Chinese Investors to Build Domestic Tea Processing Officials at a Nairobi forum invited Chinese firms to process and pack tea in Kenya, part of a push up the value chain. 2026-07-13 Vietnam's Tea Exports Fall as Pakistan Trade Drops by More Than 70 Percent Vietnam shipped less tea abroad in the first five months of 2026 than a year earlier, as its shipments to Pakistan fell by more than 70 percent. But the average price it earned per tonne rose, as exporters pushed harder into Taiwan, the Philippines, and other markets paying more. 2026-07-12 Assam's 2026-27 Budget Adds a First Export Subsidy for CTC Tea, Raises Orthodox Support to Rs 15 a Kilo Assam's maiden budget under Finance Minister Jayanta Malla Baruah introduces the state's first dedicated export subsidy for premium CTC tea and raises the orthodox and speciality production subsidy from Rs 10 to Rs 15 a kilogram. 2026-07-11 Tripura Signs Rs 726 Crore in Tea Investment MoUs, Presses Ahead With Its Own Auction Centre Tripura's state tea corporation signed memorandums of understanding worth Rs 726 crore with four investors at a July business conclave, its largest financial commitment yet, alongside plans for the state's first tea auction centre in Agartala. 2026-07-10 Kenyan Tea Losses Mount as Sudan Import Ban Persists More than 1.7 million kilograms of Kenyan tea bound for Sudan sit stranded in Mombasa warehouses over a year into Khartoum's import ban, with trade groups warning of tens of millions of dollars a year in losses if it continues. 2026-07-07 Bangladesh's Tea Auction Floor Price Lifts Grower Earnings A minimum auction price Bangladesh introduced in 2024 has pushed tea-garden earnings to a record $181 million in the 2025-26 season, Tea Board data show, as the average price rose from $1.39 to $2.00 a kilogram. 2026-07-04 Nepal's Tea Factories Reopen After India Cuts Testing to a Fifth of Consignments Nepal's tea factories, shut since mid-June over India's mandatory export testing, resumed work after Kathmandu's intervention and an Indian shift to random 20% sampling. A government task force has two weeks to propose a lasting fix. 2026-07-03 Bangladesh Forms a 10-Member Task Team to Draft a New Tea-Sector Policy Bangladesh's commerce ministry has given a 10-member task team, chaired by National Tea Company chairman Mamun Rashid, one month to draft a policy for lifting the country's tea production, branding and exports. 2026-07-02 Kenya's Tea Exports Bring In $424 Million in H1 2026 as Board Denies Levy Hurt Prices Kenya's tea farmers earned a cumulative $424 million at auction in the first half of 2026, and the Tea Board of Kenya's chief executive said the country's new export levy has had a negligible effect on price. 2026-07-01 Kenya Reopens Tea Bill Debate After MP Fails to Declare Factory Directorships Kenya's National Assembly Speaker ordered a fresh debate on the Tea Amendment Bill after finding an MP took part without declaring he directs three tea-sector companies. 2026-06-30 Kenya's New Export Levy Leaves Tea Piling Up Unsold in Mombasa Since May 1 a Sh2.28-a-kilo export levy has, traders say, pushed buyers toward untaxed Rwandan and Ugandan leaf, leaving over 10 million kilograms of Kenyan tea unsold in Mombasa warehouses. 2026-06-29 Kagoshima Leaf-Tea Prices Hit 50-Year High as Matcha Demand Pulls Land Out of Sencha Kagoshima's first-flush auction closed with honcha leaf tea averaging ¥5,228 a kilogram (about US$35), more than double last year and the highest since 1975, as growers convert sencha fields to matcha's raw material. 2026-06-28 Deckiajuli Tea Sets Record at Guwahati Auction, Tops Rs 1,103 a Kilogram A Broken Pekoe lot from Assam's Deckiajuli Tea Estate sold for Rs 1,103 per kilogram at the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre, the highest price ever recorded for CTC tea there. 2026-06-27 Sri Lanka's Tea Output and Exports Both Fall Short of 2025 as Türkiye Buys More Sri Lanka produced and exported less tea in the first five months of 2026 than a year earlier, even as Türkiye's purchases of Ceylon tea surged, according to industry figures. 2026-06-26 Assam Adds Tea Land to Farmers' Registry, Opening Credit Access to Small Growers Assam folded tea and plantation-class land into its Farmers' Registry Portal, letting small tea growers draw a Farmer ID for institutional credit, fertiliser access and welfare schemes. 2026-06-24 India's Tea Exports Hit Record ₹8,718.83 Crore in FY 2025-26 as Exporters Diversify Past West Asia Tea Board India reported record export earnings and volume for the fiscal year, with exporters pushing into China, North Africa, Canada, and Egypt as geopolitical tensions weigh on the West Asian trade. 2026-06-23 Indian Testing Rules Halt Nepali Tea Trade as Darjeeling Brand Dispute Resurfaces New Indian laboratory-testing requirements on Nepali tea, eased but not lifted, have shut all 83 tea factories in Nepal's Ilam and Jhapa districts and stranded 1,300 tonnes of leaf. 2026-06-22 McLeod Russel's Auditors Flag Going-Concern Doubt as Losses Narrow The tea producer's FY26 results carry an adverse audit opinion over billions of rupees in unresolved loans to its promoter group, even as a NARCL-led debt deal advances. 2026-06-21 Rwanda Moves to Sell Tea Directly to Pakistan, Bypassing the Mombasa Auction Rwanda's trade minister said the country has begun working with Pakistani investors to sell tea directly, avoiding the Mombasa auction where the government says its leaf fetches barely half the price Pakistani buyers will pay. 2026-06-20 Camellia's Goodricke Unit Completes Rs 19 Crore Sale of Its Chalouni Tea Estate Goodricke Group has executed the sale agreement for its Chalouni Tea Estate in the Dooars, the latest disposal under parent Camellia Plc's Value Enhancement Plan, months after a similar deal for another estate fell through. 2026-06-19 Pakistan's Tea Import Bill Rises to $554.9 Million in the First Ten Months of FY2025-26 Pakistan, the world's largest tea importer by volume, spent $554.9 million on tea in the July-to-April stretch of its 2025-26 fiscal year, up about 5% on a year earlier, a demand read for the East African trade that supplies most of it. 2026-06-18 Pakistan Takes a Record 39% of Kenya's Tea Exports as China and Sudan Pull Back Kenya exported 6% more tea in the first quarter of 2026, but the growth leaned on Pakistan, which bought a record share even as China's purchases halved. 2026-06-17 Assam's April Tea Output Rises a Third, Small Growers Take Over Half Assam produced 55.41 million kilograms of tea in April 2026, up nearly 34% on the year, with small growers responsible for 30.12 million kilograms, more than half the month's harvest, Tea Board of India figures show. 2026-06-16 West Asia Shipping Crisis Cuts India's Q1 Tea Exports 17%, and Orthodox's Main Market Is the Exposure India shipped a record 280.40 million kilograms of tea in 2025, but exports fell 21.01 million kilograms in the first quarter of 2026 as war and blocked shipping lanes cut into West Asia, the buyer of nearly half the country's tea and almost all of its orthodox grade. 2026-06-15 Dhunseri Tea's FY26 Profit Comes From Selling Two Assam Estates, Not From Tea Dhunseri Tea & Industries reported a tripling of standalone profit for the year to March 2026, but the gain rests entirely on a Rs 6.39 crore exceptional item from selling its Balijan North and Deohall estates; on operations, the company still lost money. 2026-06-14 Jay Shree Tea Swings to a Full-Year Loss While Its Revenue Rises The B.K. Birla group's tea company reported a Rs 21.83 crore net loss for FY26, reversing a Rs 128.97 crore profit, even as revenue rose almost 8%. The gap points to costs, not sales. 2026-06-13 A Sliding Rupee Keeps Ceylon Tea Prices on an Uneven Course in Early June Sri Lanka's Colombo tea auction met broad demand but irregular rates in early June 2026, with high-grown Western teas the weakest of the market, as a volatile rupee kept Ceylon prices moving unevenly grade to grade. 2026-06-12 Rossell India's Revenue Rises Nearly a Quarter in FY26, but Profit Falls Rossell India's tea revenue rose to Rs 226.20 crore in the year to March 2026, lifted by a full year of its newly bought Dhoedaam estate in Assam, but net profit fell to Rs 15.86 crore after a Rs 4.62 crore writedown and higher labour costs. 2026-05-25 Workers at Four Habiganj Tea Gardens Strike Over Unpaid Wages About 5,000 workers at four Bangladeshi tea gardens under one company began an indefinite strike after a May 6 deal to clear wage arrears went unmet. 2026-05-21 Indian Tea Auction Prices Rose Just 3.81% a Year for a Decade, Industry Body Says Marking International Tea Day, the Indian Tea Association said auction prices have crept up at a compound 3.81% a year over the past decade while most estate costs are fixed, leaving a record-volume industry squeezed on margins and exposed to a dry start to 2026. 2026-05-08 Tata Consumer's Profit Jumps 22% in the March Quarter, but Its India Tea Barely Grows Tata Consumer Products reported a 21.6% rise in quarterly net profit and its first full year past Rs 20,000 crore, but the India tea business at the centre of the group grew volumes just 4% and saw revenue slip as it passed cheaper leaf on to shoppers. 2026-04-29 Jorhat Closure Leaves Assam One Auction Centre for Over Half India's Tea The Tea Board of India discontinued the Jorhat Tea Auction Centre from April 1, 2026, leaving Assam, which grows more than half the country's tea, with a single centre against three each in South India and West Bengal. 2026-04-28 World Bank Sees Tea Prices Falling Again in 2026 After an 8% Quarterly Drop The World Bank's April Commodity Markets Outlook forecasts global tea prices to fall a further 2% in 2026, extending a two-year slide already visible in a first-quarter decline led by Kolkata and Colombo. 2026-04-17 Assam and Bengal Tea Bodies Ask Modi to Drop the 50% Auction Rule Four producer associations have asked the prime minister to withdraw a 2015 rule requiring at least half of India's tea to be sold through public auction, weeks after the Tea Board threatened action against gardens that ignore it. 2026-04-13 Uganda Puts $83 Million Behind a Tea Industry in Decline The government has unveiled a 310-billion-shilling package to bail out processors, clear seedling debts and subsidise fertiliser, after four years in which tea export earnings fell by a third. 2026-04-10 Iran Conflict Strands 8 Million Kilograms of Kenyan Tea, Costing $8 Million a Week Shipping disruption from the Iran conflict has stranded about 8 million kilograms of Kenyan tea in Mombasa warehouses, with losses running to $8 million a week since March 1, the East African Tea Trade Association said. 2026-04-01 Assam Lifts Tea-Garden Daily Wage by Rs 30 to Rs 280 Assam's statutory daily wage for tea-garden workers rose Rs 30 from April 1, to Rs 280 in the Brahmaputra Valley and Rs 258 in the Barak Valley, the first rise in over two years and labelled interim. 2026-03-09 Assam Disburses Rs 94.70 Crore to 486 Gardens Under Orthodox Tea Scheme Assam distributed Rs 94.70 crore across 486 tea gardens on March 9 under a state scheme that subsidizes orthodox and specialty tea, including a Rs 10 per-kilogram production subsidy and a 3% interest subvention, the finance minister said. 2026-03-07 Bangladesh's Northern Plains Set a Tea Record, Now About a Fifth of the Crop The flat-land districts around Panchagarh made a record 20.24 million kilograms in 2025, from a patchwork of 8,371 smallholdings and just 30 estates, and have held second place in national output since 2021. 2026-02-13 India-EU Trade Deal Zeroes Out Tea Tariffs as a Stricter EU Pesticide Limit Looms India and the European Union concluded free-trade talks on Jan. 27, dropping tea tariffs to zero, but a tighter EU pesticide-residue rule due in March could still shut out a large share of Assam's premium exports.