STiR coffee and tea magazine

30 STiR coffee and tea | 2026 Quarter 2 Summer (Jun/July/Aug) While tea is often still packed by hand in many producing countries, oil, gas, and petrol are needed for transportation and processing. Photo credit: Diana Jendoubi The current disruption of trade with Iran is a reminder that the Ceylon Tea brand needs to start strengthening its position in other markets, particularly Europe and the UK. Photo credit: Diana Jendoubi However, finding alternative markets for Vietnamese teas may prove difficult. Over the last decade, production methods for these particular teas have been adjusted to suit the requests of tea brokers in Afghanistan, and include the addition of sweetener, car- damom, and coloring to create a more vibrant green that appeals to their customers. "About 50% of [Vietnamese teas] cannot be exported to other countries," says Than. "That's a problem. Vietnamese [tea producers] should be finding ways to reach more markets by improving the quality and cleanliness of our teas, and we are looking for partners to do this." Meanwhile, as warehouses fill to the brim with this year's spring tea, Vietnamese tea exporters continue to seek new export routes to Afghanistan via overland routes through China. However, most exporters are simply opting to wait for a resolution to the conflict. The Conflict's Impacts on Specialty vs. Commodity Tea As the conflict drags on, tea producers in each region continue to assess their options and consider the implications for the industry's future. Specialty teas make up only a fraction of the total teas produced in Kenya, India, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. These teas are produced in smaller batches and sold at higher prices, either domestically or to buyers around the world, and are often shipped via air, so the impacts of the US-Iran conflict are mostly felt through increased production and transportation costs rather than an abrupt loss of market access. Commodity teas, which account for the majority of tea production in Kenya, Sri Lanka, India, and Vietnam, are sold and transported in bulk via overland or maritime routes, making them more susceptible to major disruptions as the US-Iran conflict continues. The conflict is impacting commodity tea producers in each region differently. Commodity tea producers like those in India, which can quickly pivot between product types and markets, and which have a large enough domestic market to absorb produc- tion volumes, can rapidly adapt to market disruptions. Rishi Saria of Gopaldhara Tea Estate in Darjeeling comments that "in India, most factories produce both CTC and orthodox. They will compare CTC prices with ortho- dox prices and choose to produce the tea with the higher price. Tea producers who are supplying to Iran will switch some percentage of their production to CTC, which has a huge market in India." However, he also notes that funds are tied up this year for tea producers who focus on supplying Iran, and "it is not easy to develop an overnight market" as an alternative. Commodity tea producers in Vietnam and Sri Lanka rely heavily on rigid product and market structures that have developed over the past several decades. As a result, they struggle to shift their products to other markets or domestic consumption, and face sudden disruptions to market and capital access, sending shockwaves through every link in the production and supply chain. Historical Precedence Tea markets have shifted several times over the past century due to similar political or economic disruptions, as with Taiwan's pivot from black tea export to specialty tea production and domestic consump- tion in the 1970s and 1980s. Vietnam also made a similar shift from sale to the Soviet Union, then Iraq, and then Pakistan and Afghanistan from the 1950s to the early 2000s. And during the 1990s, Sri Lanka's tea industry leaped at the opportunity for growth in the Middle East and former So- viet markets. Perhaps the current conflict will usher in a new shift. Simon Bell of the Ceylon Artisanal Tea Association comments that "the opening and growth of the Middle East and former Soviet markets in the 1990s have been a great boon for Sri Lanka's tea industry — driving 80% of our exports and all of our growth for the last 30 years. But because those markets were too easy to drive growth, most Sri Lankan tea mak- ers shifted their focus away from their tra- ditional markets, such as the UK, Europe, and North America. We need to rebuild the Ceylon brand in those markets." In the meantime, commodity tea pro- ducers in Kenya, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and India continue to wait and see how the situation develops. "It's not that the buying in Iran is going to collapse," remarks Rishi Saria, noting that black tea sales to the Middle East typically begin during summer. The impact of the US-Iran conflict on black tea sales this year "will only be clear in the months of July and August."

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