India Plans to Sustain Tea Industry Using Blockchain Technology

India has announced plans to adopt blockchain technology in the tea industry to maintain and ensure the traceability of tea, according to a report by the local news source, The Economic Times.

The Indian Tea Board deputy chairman, Arun Kr Ray, said in the report that the country is “going to start an exercise for determining the traceability of tea, particularly of the orthodox variety, using blockchain technology.”

About 25 companies, including Amazon, Infosys, and Yes Bank, responded to an expression of interest (EoI) by the Tea Board of India, which aimed at joining other technologies with blockchain to achieve the initiative.

The exercise, according to Ray, is required for an extended period to ensure the sustainability of the industry which has so far witnessed an increase in production costs, and a subsequent increase in tea price.

Although India is next to China as the world’s largest producer of the beverage, the country’s “tea exports have been stagnating at around 250 million kilograms. The way tea is exported currently does not fetch a fair price in the overseas markets,” Ray said. 

He further noted that tea growers have not been able to pay higher wages to the laborers due to this issue. They will only do so once they realize a better price for their produce.

Hence, among the companies who responded to the EoI, “the selected consultant will advise on the costs for carrying out the exercise on a long-term basis,” he added.

In addition to ensuring the sustainability of the tea industry, the technologies will also be used to determine whether a variety of tea is grown organically or not.

India has been a great fan of blockchain but showed less interest in cryptocurrencies, which are underlined by the technology.

On November 27, Coinfomania reported that the Indian government is planning to deploy blockchain in various sectors of the nation’s economy, according to India’s minister of state for electronics and information technology (MeitY), Sanjay Dhotre.