Darjeeling Tea fails to spread its aroma on ecommerce’s platform

Darjeeling Tea, high quality Indian tea who has charmed the global tea lovers with its rich aroma and taste, fails to find its place in ecommerce business. As per the traders, the depleting prices of some of the varieties to almost a quarter indicate that ecommerce business has not yielded any profit for this Indian beverage.

The experts of the Darjeeling tea business are not moved by the recent switch to the online business from the traditional physical auction system. Many of them feel that this move has not triggered any positives for the business and had taken the trade further into the swamp.

Electronic bidding for Darjeeling tea was started in June this year, eight years after the government moved sale of all other teas online. Now, almost half of India's tea output of more than 1,200 million kg is sold this way.

This inclusion didn’t go as per the government’s plan and it belied expectations of bidding wars and higher prices for Darjeeling tea. Sharing their agony, one of the traders briefed to a renowned media house that the electronic bidding system, prices of the broken and fannings varieties, which together make up half of the Darjeeling tea output, have fallen 15-25 per cent from the previous year when the 'outcry auction' system was in place.

When the pan India e-auction was launched in June by the Tea Board for all types of teas, people thought that it will be good for the producers as it will encourage bidding wars and drive up prices. But in the case of Darjeeling tea such a thing did not happen as it is a very unique kind of tea and there is hardly any competition for it in the market, informed SS Bagaria, Chairman, Darjeeling Tea Association (DTA).