The worldwide impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the tea industry

The Covid-19 pandemic impacted the world economy and disrupted nearly every industry. The tea industry is no exception. The pandemic affected production, revenue, and supply chain across the world. Its impact on small farmers to distributors to store owners has been huge, given the massive demand among consumers worldwide. Lockdown restrictions, ban on import and export activities, and interruption in supply chain activities were impacting factors in the industry. Major tea producing regions such as India, China, and East Africa have been affected during the pandemic. More than 80 million people have been impacted worldwide.

India has been the major country impacted massively by the Covid-19 pandemic. Labors were forced to stay at home and the farming activities were stopped during the lockdown. Assam and Darjeeling are the major tea producing regions in the country and the initial flush harvests were lost during the time of lockdown across the country. The supply chain was also disrupted and the national consumption reduced considerably, causing losses in overall revenue. Livelihood of small farmers was affected significantly due to stoppage of production and disrupted supply chain. Various organizations and governments supported tea growers by creating awareness programs about safety practices, personal hygiene, and social distancing.

The impact on China, being the largest tea producing country in the world, has been a considerable one. The harvesting has been impacted in the spring due to unavailability of labor. Moreover, farmers and growers did not try to produce on huge scale due to uncertain market conditions and consumption volumes. There has been a ban on export activities for specific time. However, there has not been much impact as the export activities were reduced by nearly 1.6%. The tea market in China is expected to recover sooner as compared to other countries.

In East Africa, the production of tea had not been much affected and the consumption rate increased. Many buyers preferred purchasing tea crops from the East African countries such as Kenya due to disruptions in supply chains in the Asian countries. Many countries from Asia such as Sri Lanka and Nepal experienced reduction in production due to lockdown measures and the foremost priority given to the safety of workers. The tourism activities were stopped and it impacted the sales volumes of different flavors of tea such as bubble tea, organic tea, green tea, and others. Introduction of new flavors is expected to present new opportunities during the post-Covid era.

According to many report, the live auctions for tea were either postponed or cancelled. Many countries such as India and Sri Lanka held online auctions, which gained significant success. During the post-lockdown, labors have been returned to fields, governments have relaxed restrictions, and supply chain has been getting back on track. According to the tea market analysis conducted by Allied Market Research, the tea market is expected to reach $68.95 billion by 2027. The retail and ecommerce sector is estimated to expand in the next few years and the tea industry is expected to recover soon and grow.

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