Tea Biz Dan Bolton

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Violent Protest Halt Ekaterra Tea Operations | Workers set fire to tea harvesting equipment | China Anticipating Massive COVID Wave | India’s Wagh Bakri Tea to Expand to 200 Tea Lounges by 2026 
| NEWSMAKER – Asia Siyaka Managing Director and CEO Anil Cooke 
| FEATURE INTRO – The world’s 14 public tea auctions account for 77% of global trade. Each year about 1.5 million metric tons of tea cross the trading desks of sell-side brokers. Asia Siyaka Managing Director and CEO Anil Cooke spoke to Tea Biz on a recent visit to his Colombo, Sri Lanka office. Cooke heads one of eight accredited brokerages responsible for assessing the quality and transacting the sale of millions of kilos of Ceylon teas generating more than 1 billion dollars annually. 
Inside Sri Lanka's e-Auction – In 1883 the Colombo Tea Auction sold its first five lots. Brokers now sell more than 5,000 metric tons weekly, about 300,000 metric tons yearly. The total represents 90% of Sri Lanka’s tea production. Auctions were conducted in person for 150 years until COVID-19 forced the Colombo Tea Traders Association (CTTA) to select, install and test a digital auction platform in May 2020. The first e-auction went live in only seven days with the help of CICRA Solutions, the local Microsoft affiliate. Several upgrades have followed. Looking over his shoulder, Cooke explains the digital bidding process that is now routine: 


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HEAR THE HEADLINES – International Tea Day Makes a Big Splash | This year’s theme is Bringing People Together Over a Cup of Tea | Receding La Niña Expected to Boost Summer Temps | Catchy TV Campaign Promotes Lipton’s New Hard Tea
| NEWSMAKER – Nadia de la Vega, Director of Tea Sustainability and Content at DAVIDsTEA
| FEATURE INTRO – Tea Biz travels to Montréal, Quebec, to talk with Nadia de la Vega, director of tea sustainability and content at DAVIDsTEA. This company fosters a spirit of POSITIVI-TEA which she describes as doing what’s right for our local communities and global suppliers. Jessica Natale Woollard reports.
Sustainability is a Long-Term Commitment, Not a Campaign or Promotion – Cheerful packaging and bright aqua for a signature color have made DAVIDsTEA one of Canada’s most recognizable tea brands. Founded in 2008, DAVIDsTEA expanded to become Canada’s largest specialty tea boutique, offering over a hundred teas and blends. The company made tea accessible, attracting a new generation of tea drinkers. Pre-pandemic, it operated 240 retail locations in Canada and the US but today focuses on e-commerce and wholesale. From day one, DAVIDsTEA has been sustainably oriented. It’s in the company’s DNA, says Nadia de la Vega, DAVIDsTEA’s director of tea sustainability. Nadia joins us on the podcast to discuss sustainability in the tea industry and how mindfulness and fun can go hand in hand. “Sustainability is not a campaign,” says de la Vega. “When you’re doing sustainability work, you are not doing a sale, and you’re not doing a promotion. This is a long-term commitment to your product and the people that provide the product you consume and love.”


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HEAR THE HEADLINES – The Cost of Shipping Tea is Near the Pre-Pandemic Normal and Falling | In May, the Drewery Container Composite Price was $1,741 for a 40-foot container | Andrew Yule Tea Sets Export Record | Market Researchers Predict Nitrogen Infused Tea Will Experience Double-Digit Growth
| GUEST – Buddika Dissanyaika, founder of Forest Hill Tea
| FEATURE INTRO – Tea Biz travels to Sri Lanka this week to the foot of Adam’s Peak, where Forest Hill Tea founder Buddika Dissanyaka led us on a hike to a forest of 900 trees growing wild on an estate abandoned 135 years ago.
Revitalized Tea Forest Offers Distinctive Wild Taste –
Millions of tea trees, first Introduced in 1867, can be found along the 268-mile length of Sri Lanka, a tropical paradise of tea estates that employ 1.5 million people today. The trees at Warnagala Tea Estate, established in 1890 by Scottish planters, rise 40 to 50 feet into the rainforest canopy on the slopes of the sacred Sri Pada Mountain range. Pluckers from Forest Hill artisan tea climb into the trees to retrieve green leaves for tea making.


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HEAR THE HEADLINES – Finlays Sells its Kenya Tea Operations to Sri Lanka-based Browns Investments | Nine Finlays estates span 10,300 hectares and employ 10,000 workers | Reaction to India’s Tea Floor Price Proposal is Mixed
| World Tea Expo Rebrands as World Tea
NEWSMAKER - Guarav Gogoi, founder of Eteakol
| FEATURE INTRO – Tea Biz travels to Paris this week to visit with Guarav Gogoi, founder of Eteakol, an innovative business-to-business platform created to connect wholesale tea suppliers with discerning retailers who want to showcase artisanal tea packed at origin and shipped direct.
Tea Wholesale Simplified – The unit economics of cross-border trade is expensive and requires a lot of effort, beginning with mastering import-export regulations, customs clearance policies, and logistics, explains Eteakol founder Guarav Gogoi. Traders send large volumes of tea to minimize expenses. We take care of all end-to-end fulfillment, so all regulatory clearances, logistics, shipping, and operations are simplified for artisan tea makers.


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HEAR THE HEADLINES – The Global Dubai Tea Forum Makes a Splendid Return | DMCC Executive Chairman and CEO Ahmed bin Sulayem commits to a schedule of future conferences | South India Planters Name 18 Golden Tea Leaf India Award Winners | The Indian Tea Association Presses for a Tea Price Floor Indexed to Rising Production Costs Borne by Smallholders and Made Leaf Producers
| NEWSMAKER - Siân Edwards, Group Insights Manager at Finlays
| FEATURE INTRO - This week, Tea Biz discusses a range of revealing consumer trends and beverage insights with Siân Edwards Edwards -- Group Insights Manager at Finlays. She says the outlook for the beverage industry is positive, with consumers making good choices for the planet and themselves.
Conscious Consumerism – Finlays annually publishes a beverage trends report. This year’s eighteen pages of statistics and market research revealed that consumers have growing concerns about food inflation and economic growth, but research cited in Finlays Beverage Trends 2023 indicates that consumers continue to view good tea as an affordable luxury, explains Group Insights Manager Siân Edwards.
Edwards says, “The desire to treat themselves, coupled with concern for their health and the planet, drives the trend toward conscious consumerism. We’re seeing how each purchasing decision is carefully evaluated regarding financial, health, and environmental cost. Throughout this report, we’ve sought to encapsulate this broad sentiment under the banner of ‘mindfulness’, as people mindfully allow themselves indulgences, choose healthy products, and opt for brands with a lower environmental impact.”


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HEAR THE HEADLINES – A Billion People Participate in Earth Day Activities | Earth Day Organizers Honor Just Ice Tea Founder Seth Goldman | Iran Snubs India Suppliers as Tea Exports Set Record | Long-Running Drought in Kenya Depresses Tea Yields
| NEWSMAKER – Bala Sarda, founder of Vahdam Tea, New Delhi, India
| FEATURE INTRO – Tea Biz travels to New Delhi this week to discuss with Vahdam Tea founder Bala Sarda a new line of 25 Indian spices grown free of adulterants and pesticides and manufactured without artificial colors. Initially, Vahdam spices will be sold directly to consumers and later offered in grocery stores.
Innovating and Invigorating India's Spice Industry – "From day one, one of the key things we identified, Aravinda, was this incredible opportunity that India as a country offers' says Vahdam Tea Founder Bala Sarda. "If you look at a product like tea, as we all know, India is one of the largest producers and exporters of tea in the world. If you look at the stats, India is also the world's largest producer and exporter of spices. We also have the largest variety of spices. If you look at some of the more popular variants of spices, say turmeric, 80% of the world's turmeric is made in India, and the list goes on and on. There is no Indian brand or brand at its origin that adds value and takes this product to consumers in global markets. There is no innovation in the category. So, of course, we knew right away the supply chain was extremely broken. There were multiple middlemen, from a farmer in India to consumers worldwide. That just told us there is an opportunity for us as a brand to solve and make a much better, higher quality, fresher product available to consumers."


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