Hopeful of strong season for tea industry, says Vahdam Teas CEO Bala Sarda

Bala Sarda, founder and CEO of Vahdam Teas, in an interview with CNBC-TV18, said he is very hopeful for a strong season for the industry overall.

The industry had to face a lot of losses during COVID-19 pandemic last year. “However, the early signs for this season has been strong and we hope to see a competitive season going ahead and strong demand for first class teas from India globally,” he added.

“A bit of the tea industry is organised but there are hundreds of small growers who are contributing to this ecosystem to the industry. Even at Vahdam, apart from working with the bigger groups who own a lot of estates, we do work with smaller players as well. So overall the future looks bright for small growers in India,” he said.

Sarda sees a great fundamental shift towards more consumption of healthier variants of tea. “We have seen a strong demand across geographies for healthier variants like green teas, herbal teas. Both in India and global markets especially in the US, we have seen premium variants of tea growing to even 3x number for a few categories. That is broadly driven by wellness,” he stated.

“Tea will continue to grow, we are very excited as a brand to continue to push and build up momentum in these specific categories globally,” Bala pointed out.