Extreme weather in India‘s main tea-producing region has disrupted the annual harvest leading to fears the price of a humble cuppa could soon skyrocket.

According to India’s Tea Board, the average price of Indian tea leaves is currently £2 per kg, up almost 20 per cent on last year, having been driven up by heatwaves and flooding.

The Indian government’s ban on 20 pesticides has further affected production in areas such as Assam – which accounts for more than half of the country’s tea output.

Prabhat Bezboruah, a senior planter and a former chairman of the Tea Board, told The Times: ‘Extreme weather events are hurting tea production. Excessive heat in May, followed by flooding in Assam, are reducing output.’

Britons drink an average of 100 million cups of tea a day, or about 36 billion a year, making this country India’s top export destination for tea.

According to India’s Tea Board, the average price of Indian tea leaves is currently £2 per kg, up almost 20 per cent on last year, having been driven up by heatwaves and flooding (Pictured: Indian workers pluck tea leaves at the Dhagapur tea garden estate on the outskirts of the northeastern Indian city of Siliguri)

Britons drink an average of 100 million cups of tea a day, or about 36 billion a year, making this country India’s top export destination for tea (file image) 

This year, India is expected to export about 100 million kilograms of the product, a fall of seven per cent in comparison to the record 1.394 billion kilograms they produced last year.

Mr Bezboruah predicts that the wholesale price of tea will be pushed up by the problems named above by between 16 per cent and 20 per cent this year, as more than half of India’s tea leaves are harvested between July and October.

Currently in the UK, the average price of a packet of 80 teabags is at £2.64, jumping by 11 per cent over the past year from £2.37, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Further price rises will depend on how much of the higher costs manufacturers and retailers will be willing to soak up, as well as the length of time left on the supermarkets’ existing tea supply contracts.

Problems have been caused across India, including in cities such as Delhi, due to the heavy monsoon rain.

Tea production in the country was down by more than 30 per cent during May compared to the same time last year after a heatwave left harvesters struggling to pick leaves.

During that month in 2024, India produced just 91 million kilograms of tea, the lowest quantity produced during that month for more than a decade.

Other than the Irish and Turkish, Britons drink more tea than any nationality in the world.

Mr Bezboruah predicts that the wholesale price of tea will be pushed up by the problems named above by between 16 per cent and 20 per cent this year (pictured: Woman plucking tea at Makaibari tea plantation, Darjeeling, West Bengal, India)

In recent years, tea tastes in this country have changed, with the consumption of herbal teas rising while the popularity of the classic English breakfast has been on the decline.

Britons spent more on herbal teas than traditional tea for the first time last year, according to market research firm Kantar.

Separate research suggests that a majority of people would now, given the choice, prefer a herbal tea.

For those who love a classic builders tea, the good news is that the price of milk is falling.

According to the ONS, the cost of whole milk has fallen by six per cent over the past year, but the cost of sugar has increased by eight per cent.