Tea in shortage

Tea picker in Darjeeling. Photo © Karin Heinze

Drought, strikes and unrests limit the choice in the tea shelves. Rooibos and Darjeeling are particularly affected by the consequences. While the deficiency will continue for the also called bush tea or redbush tea, recovery is in sight for Darjeeling tea from India.

On average 70 litres, that's how much tea every German drinks per year. This puts the Germans behind the British, Irish and Polish, but ahead of countries such as France, Italy and Switzerland. But of all things two popular varieties are currently in short supply: Darjeeling and Rooibos - one a black tea from the Indian region of the same name, the other an herbal tea from South Africa. And the latter is suffering from the extreme drought that has afflicted the country for a few years. “This means that rooibos cannot be purchased in the desired quantity, the warehouses are empty, so the goods are in short supply,” explains Kyra Schaper, spokeswoman at Wirtschaftsvereinigung Kräuter- und Früchtee (WKF). In 2015, Germany imported 2775 tonnes. “However, the extreme drought and the associated crop losses caused sales to fall by 26 percent to 2,005 tons in 2016 and by 19 percent in 2017,” says Schaper.

Drought is one of the reasons for the bad harvest of Rooibos tea from South Africa. Photo © Pixabay

Consequences of climate change

The local farmers are desperately looking for a solution. “We have lost more than two thirds of production,” complains Barend Salomo, Managing Director of Wupperthal Original Rooibos Agricultural Primary Cooperative (WORC), a partner of Gepa from the South African growing region near Wupperthal. Before the drought, farmers harvested around 500 kilograms per hectare, today it is only 50 to 100 kilograms, Salomo observed: “It is so bad that some of the commercial farmers and plantations irrigate the Rooibos areas.” Whether this will succeed, however, is controversial. Because Rooibos gets a different, according to Salomo, worse aroma through irrigation. The plants do not need much moisture and are adapted to the arid climate on site. But they do need some water. Many plants die in the drought. And those that survive aren’t growing a lot anymore.

Gepa finances its own technical consultant. “He advises the cooperative and trains small farmers to adapt to climate change,” says Peter Schaumberger, Managing Director at Gepa. Nobody dares to predict how long the drought will last. There is an exceptional situation caused by climate change.

Rooibos: Narrow product range and increased prices

The prices react accordingly. According to Gepa, local purchase prices have risen by more than 150 percent since 2013. Also because the producers have to invest in order to reap more. This has a direct effect on the assortment on the shelf. “Unfortunately, we cannot use rooibos as the basis for our new tea assortment at the moment, because we do not know how much our trading partner WORC can make available to us this year," says Schaumberger, explaining one consequence. Retailers should inform their customers about the changed circumstances. Also to promote understanding for higher prices. For a long time, perhaps. “If we don't get enough rain, the situation will be irreversible,” Salomo says sadly.

Relaxation of the situation in Darjeeling

For Darjeeling from India, on the other hand, it looks like more positive. Here the second flush supply became short, when a 104-day strike and unrest in the growing region resulted in a harvest stop last year. "The tea bushes grew into large shrubs and had to be laboriously cut down again," reports Tea Promoters India. Peter Schaumberger was on site in November 2017 to get an idea of the situation: "With a little more effort one could also harvest from the long shoots, with less yield." The company made up for this in part by raising the price.

Meeting of farm managers and the owner of one of the tea gardens of Tea Promoters India in Darjeeling. Photo © Karin Heinze

According to the German Tea Association, Germany imported almost 700 tons of Darjeeling tea in 2016, 60 tons of which was organic. Compared to the total tea production in India of around 1,25 million tons, this is negligible. But Darjeeling is still popular with tea lovers. However, it is not possible to switch to other regions, as the name Darjeeling is protected like champagne and cognac.

The offer of Darjeeling Second Flush 2016 is now slowly running out on the shelves, says Maximilian Wittig, Managing Director of the German Tea Association: "Questions about possible price developments are currently rather philosophical, as no Second Flush 2017 was offered on the one hand and the Second Flush 2018 has yet to be picked on the other. And this will only begin towards the end of May, beginning of June. Wittig expects the Second Flush 2018 to be on retail shelves in late September and early October.

Darjeeling is a geographically protected area for tea. Photo © Karin Heinze

Watch the video about Darjeeling´s Tea Promoters tea gardens