Tea & Plantations

Tea is woven into India's identity — from the gardens of Assam and Darjeeling to the Nilgiri hills — and India is the world's second-largest producer. Production rose from 1,207 million kg in 2014 to a record 1,396 million kg in 2025. Most of India's tea is consumed at home, with premium Darjeeling and Assam varieties prized as exports.

India's tea carries unique Geographical Indication (GI) tags — Darjeeling was India's first GI product — that protect and premium-price its heritage varieties. The organised sector alone employs 11.56 lakh workers, nearly 58% of them women, and orthodox, green and specialty teas are a growing niche for health-conscious global buyers.

Tea grows on large estates concentrated in a few regions — Assam and the Dooars for volume, Darjeeling and the Nilgiris for premium leaf. Each estate is a self-contained world: workers (a large share of them women) pluck leaves that must be processed within hours in the estate's own factory. The Tea Board regulates the industry and protects prized names like Darjeeling through GI status; producers must sell half their tea through public auctions.

India is the world's second-largest tea producer (1,300–1,400 million kg a year in recent years), a global name in Assam and Darjeeling, and a steady exporter. The priorities ahead are worker welfare — housing, healthcare and wage programmes run through the Tea Board — alongside replanting older bushes, premium branding in specialty and organic tea, and growing export demand.

1,207 → 1,396 M kg tea production (2014→2025). 2nd-largest producer. GI tags (Darjeeling, Assam). 11.56 lakh organised-sector workers, nearly 58% women. Sources: Tea Board of India; PIB.