Despite increasing global tea consumption the quality of tea is a concern: Sanjay Goel, CEO Teayamo

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Despite increasing global tea consumption the quality of tea is a concern: Sanjay Goel, CEO Teayamo

By TPCI | July 23, 2019

Tea consumption has grown rapidly particularly in China, India and other emerging economies, driven by a combination of higher incomes and consumer's unending zeal to try diversified specialty teas such as herbal tea, fruit fusions and flavoured gourmet tea.

Tea consumption has also benefited from increased awareness about the beverages anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and weight loss effects. Such health and wellbeing benefits are seen as the key drivers of future consumption growth.

Highlights:
● Tea is the second most consumed drink in the world, after water.
● Tea has miraculous qualities; contrary to the notion that it makes the consumer high and addicted, it rather relaxes your mind and makes you calm.
● Indians follow wrong way of making tea and thus make it acidic.
● Say NO to Dip Tea Bags as it has serious repercussions on environment and on your pocket and sometimes even on your health.
● China, the pioneer of tea preparation, to emerge as the biggest market.

Global tea consumption and production are projected to keep rising over the next decade, driven by robust demand in developing and emerging countries. This will create new rural income opportunities and improve food security in tea-producing countries, as suggested by a report released by Food and Agricultural Organization of the United States (FAO), 2018.

Giving some insights to the industry trend and potentials, Sanjay Goel, Founder & CEO, Teayamo, interacted exclusively with TPCI. Teayamo is an emerging Indian producer and exporter of black and herbal green teas.

Sanjay Goel is also popular as innovative entrepreneur and an angel investor who has invested in a various tech/non-tech start-ups and earned well. Goel’s love for tea and passion for doing something nobel for society has triggered him to innovate Tea leaves blends with Ayurvedic Himalayan Herbs at Teayamo.

1. How did you ideate Teayamo?
Sanjay Goel: The global consumption of tea is forecasted to reach to around 300 billion liters by 2021. So, naturally as the demands are high, the tea industry is growing and really promising. On the other hand, global black tea production this year has also risen. India is almost topping the global black tea production as it stands as the second largest producer of tea in the world.

Certainly the consumption is rising and so is the production. Thus, the tea companies are proliferating across the globe. However, the quality remains a question. There still lies a dire need of accentuating the production and brewing of real good quality tea. Owing to this fact, we came up with Teayamo, a healthy Tea brand that caters a diverse consumer base in India and overseas. We wanted to bring the best of the authentic Indian tea directly from the gardens of Assam, Darjeeling and Nilgiri. As explained earlier, the industry indicates of a tough competition. So we decided to leverage the USP of India i.e., Ayurveda to make our tea unique, sapid and all together healthy. Thus, Teayamo is synonymous to a healthy blend of fresh Indian whole leaves tea and ayurvedic herbs.

2. What are your main products and target markets? Please highlight your USPs.
SG:Tea is forever, we just upgraded it! With finest tea leaves carefully handpicked from gardens of Assam and Darjeeling, Teayamo endows the customers with its prominent product, the Masala Black Tea. The heady aroma of the indigenous spiceslike sweet cinnamon, spicy black pepper&clove, mingling well with the refreshing fragrance of cardamom and therapeutic ginger gives Teayamo tea the real taste and essence of Indian Herbal Tea.

Besides, with a number of delectable flavours, Teayamo also presents a wide range of natural & pure herbal green teas that serve various purposes viz., relaxation, weight loss and immunity building. Collected right from the kosher gardens, they are brewed with well-proportioned herbs as Chamomile, Rose Petals, Garchia Cambogia, Lemongrass, Coleus and Mint. This miraculously healthy green tea, brewed on the principles of Ayurveda, detoxify, relax your mind, induce better sleep, and keep a person hale.

All the tea that we produce are 100% natural mostly whole leaf, with no added flavours (not even nature identical flavours) and pure herbal ingredients. No preservatives, No chemicals, no fakes and no dusts. Our packaging is reusable and hence environment friendly.

Currently, apart from catering the domestic needs, we feed some proportion of tea demands of UK, Middle East and Africa. We look forward to tap the Chinese market as it is the world’s largest consumer of Tea. In fact, “the Tea making” finds its roots in China.

3. Any R&D and challenges that you might want to mention?
SG: There is a perpetual myth about tea that its intake is unhealthy, or it makes you dark and so on…So, amidst the issue of circulating degraded quality of tea in the market (takes a pause, mentions few brands that are into the adulteration of tea and continues..) that needs no mention further, educating the masses remains a big challenge for us. It is not the tea that is harmful for intake, but the household tea making process that we Indians follow which is hazardous, as it makes the tea acidic. Thus, we have to educate people about the right way of preparing daily household tea, first, and then about the inherent detoxifying properties which it carries. Tea, when taken right, relaxes and rejuvenates you and keeps you healthy and cool, all together.

Also, a recent trend of using tea bags has hit us hard. Yes, it is comfortable and easy to use, but unfortunately, it is not that easy for the environment to decompose it well. In fact, the packaging used for carrying tea is completely non-decomposable, that too for centuries. I would suggest, loose tea leaves is a much better and responsible choice.

4. Have you participated in IndusFood earlier? Please share your experience.
SG: Yes. Big shots in the market get the intended millage more or less easily. But it is addressing the needs of nascent players where promoting trade comes into picture! Trade shows as IndusFood are facilitating the small players also to jump into the run. It not only provides you a concrete platform to find valuable buyers for your products, but also give good millage to your brand. Being a part of IndusFood in earlier editions was a blissful and appeasing experience. Start-ups are given special attention and discounts, besides catering top-notch long-time players. This is how it is different and unique.

5. How do you see the Tea industry growth, the global perspective?
SG: World production of black tea is projected to rise annually by 2.2 percent over the next decade to reach 4.4 million ton in 2027, reflecting major output increases in China, Kenya and Sri Lanka - with this China would reach the output levels of Kenya, the largest black tea exporter in the world.

Global output of green tea is foreseen to increase at an even faster rate of 7.5 percent annually to reach 3.6 million ton in 2027, largely driven by China, where the production of green tea is expected to more than double from 1.5 million ton in 2015-2017 to 3.3 million ton by 2027.

According to Tea Board of India, India is the second largest producer of tea in the world and also accounts for the highest tea consumption globally. But, around 80% of the total tea produced in India is consumed by the domestic population. This very fact gives a room to novice players in the Indian Tea production market to explore more.

6. Your upcoming plans for expansion?
SG: Teayamo in association with Shree Rudra Confectionary Pvt. Ltd has come up with a healthy chocolate brand, Krusherz. With chocolates ranging from Krusherz’s Stone candy, Fruit and Nuts, Choco Rasins, Fruitano and many more, Krusherz offer a myriad of chocolates with rich milk and minimum sugar content, thereby making it healthy. Thus, it fulfills the kids’ need of nutrition and the hunger for taste. Currently, besides feeding to the domestic needs, we also export Krusherz chocolates to countries like Africa and Dubai. Believing that we are still in a very nascent stage as far as exports is concerned; we would also like to tap the prudent Gulf market.