Thursday, October 25, 2007

Tea Plantation Woes

Tea sales in the US are going upupup, India's tea exports are rising each year, and yet the Indian tea industry is still ailing. Why? Murders and kidnappings by Assamese rebel group ALOF, the increased production cost of ethical employment practices (the British used a system modeled after the cotton plantations in the US... in other words, a slavery system), and poorly managed resources. What's a planter to do? Make tea a tourist industry.

In somewhat related news, a lot of people have been emailing to ask if I'll be starting to tea tours to India in the future. I hope to arrange for a small group trip next year, followed by larger ones in the following years. If you're interested, drop me a line.

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