Asia Tea Alliance, a coalition of tea producers from Asia’s largest tea producing countries, is planning to explore possibilities of creating a tea consuming market in Africa in order to increase global consumption of the brew amid overall oversupply scenario.
“What we are seeing is that instead of focusing or targeting saturated markets of Europe and the US, why not look at Africa as a market. Our slogan is: This time for Africa. There is a huge untapped potential. And this is where all our Asian friends want to make this, as for the next decades to come, the focus market, and introduce the culture of tea into Africa and make sure that the market grows,” said Hemant Bangur, Chairman, Asia Tea Alliance (ATA).
Bangur was talking to the media during the Asia International Tea Summit held in Kolkata on Thursday. The event was hosted by Solidaridad and the Indian Tea Association (ITA).
“In Africa, we need to evolve a strategy which works to make tea as a popular and the most pleasurable drink at the lowest cost as compared to either coffee or alcohol or any other variations,” said Bangur, also ITA Chairman.
The Asia Tea Alliance (ATA) is a coalition of tea producers, apex associations, and tea boards from Asia’s largest tea-producing countries, including India, China, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Japan, with Solidaridad Asia as the convener. Founded in 2019, ATA aims to support a sustainable, competitive, and resilient tea sector across Asia.
No GM tea
“At ATA it has been decided to undertake a study to ascertain the consumers’ preferences of the African market. According to International Tea Committee’s report, the global oversupply is around 391 million kg. Therefore, new markets need to be explored to boost consumption,” Arijit Raha, secretary general of Indian Tea Association (ITA), told businessline.
Notably, teas produced in some of the African countries are mostly being exported to Europe.
Bangur informed that the ATA has also decided to strongly discourage production of any genetically modified teas.
“We have resolved as producers that we will not encourage any genetically modified teas to be produced. No genetically modified materials to be produced so that we retain the original characteristics of teas,” he added.