There has been phenomenal increase in the internal consumption of tea in the country. In 1950 only 27.7 per cent of the total production of the tea was utilised in mal consumption which rose to 66 per cent in 1985 and 80 per cent in 1994.
Similarly the per capita consumption of tea has also risen from 257 gms per year in 1950-51 to 621 gms. per year in 1991-92 (cf. Ireland 4400 gms, U.K. 3500 gms, Netherlands 3900 gms., New Zealand 2700 gms., Australia 2200 gms, Iraq 2160 gms and Sri Lanka 1600 gms.). About 40
per cent of the country’s household still does not use tea. The consumption is likely to increase in near future.
Trade
Tea forms an essential item of the India’s export. Prior to 1965 India was the largest exporter of tea in the world. But today its place has gone down to third after Sri Lanka and China. Similarly its share in world export has also declined from 45.5 per cent in 1951 to 19.2 per cent in 1985 and 15.7 per cent in 1994. In 1960-61 India exported 199.2 thousand tones of tea valued at Rs. 124 crores which increased to 202.4 thousand tons in 2000-01 valued at Rs. 1976 crores (Table 11 .III).
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Recently there has been some improvement in the export (in 1998-99 export being 210.4 tons valued at Rs. 2265 crores). Bulk of this export goes to the U.K., U.S.A., Canada, Russia, U.A.R., Sudan, Afghanistan, Australia and Germany. Indian tea has to face tough competition from Sri Lanka and China whose tea is of better quality and cheap.
Coffee plant is a native of Abyssinia whose seed was brought by the Muslim Fakir, Bababudan Sahib in the 17th century and its first seedling was raised in the Bababudan Hills (Karnataka). The commercial plantation of coffee was started by the Britishers near Chikmagalur (Kamataka), in 1826, in Manantody (Waynad) and Shevaroys in 1830 and in the Nilgiris in 1839. It is very popular beverage in the southern Indian states of Kamataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
India contributes 2.8 per cent of the world’s production of coffee. Its mild variety of coffee is of great demand in foreign countries.
Conditions of Growth
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Coffee plant requires hot and humid climate with 16°C-28°C of temperature, 150 cm-250 cm of rainfall and well drained friable forest loams along hill slopes (height 600m-1500 m). Both low temperature with frost conditions and snowfall and excessive heat with prolonged drought are harmful to the plant.
The soil should be rich in humus and minerals like iron and calcium. Generally cattle manure, oil-cakes, bone meal and fertilizer mixers are used to improve the soil fertility. Coffee cultivation requires cheap labour for transplanting, plucking, drying and processing of berries.