From a base deep in an industrial suburb of Delhi, Bala Sarda is plotting a revolution. By selling tea leaves direct from India’s estates to customers in New York and London, and by doing it online, his targets are both the middlemen that proliferate in the industry and the international tea giants, such as Twinings and Tetley. “The traditional supply chain involves as many as eight to ten middlemen,” the 26-year-old entrepreneur says. After tea chests go under the hammer at auction houses in Calcutta, India’s tea capital in West Bengal, they are sold on to brokers before reaching exporters, then importers and, finally, a shop shelf. The tea often sits in warehouses and ship containers for months and, Mr Sarda added, “unlike whisky, tea… Want to read more? Register with a few details to continue reading this article.
Indian entrepreneur Bala Sarda is shaking up the tea market by selling his tea leaves direct from India to customers in London and New York, and cutting out eight to 10 layers of middlemen as well as tea giants like Twinings and Tetley. The traditional tea supply chain is a lengthy process with tea often sitting in warehouses and ship containers for a week. “Unlike whisky, tea does not get better with age,” pointed out Sarda, who added his customers “can have our tea plucked from a bush in the Himalayas and into a cup on a breakfast table in America in months”.