The tea of Himachal Pradesh has achieved a great achievement at the international level. Kangra tea has been awarded the European GI Tag. The European GI tag is given only to products that meet high standards.
Kangra tea is currently being grown in a very small area and its production is also relatively low. Despite this, the high quality of Kangra tea has earned it great respect not only for the state but also for the country.
According to experts, only a few products have got the European tag in the country. In such a situation, the inclusion of Kangra tea in this list is very encouraging for Kangra tea and tea producers.
Kangra tea has its own special aroma and taste and because of that it got GI tag in 2005. At present there are tea gardens in the state in about 2400 hectares.
Four decades ago, there were tea gardens in an area of about three thousand hectares. From 1990 to 2002, the Kangra tea industry was at its peak and every year more than one million kilos of tea was being produced here.
Due to the efforts of the tea growers, all records of tea production were broken in 1998-99 and 17,11,242 kg of tea was produced in that year.
Due to various reasons this trend could not continue and in the last few years the figure of tea production has remained less than one million kilos.
Compared to other states, the size of tea gardens in the state is very less. The biggest advantage of the big tea garden owners in other states is that their labor is available here throughout the year at the right price.
Due to small tea gardens, labor cannot be hired for the whole year and the labor coming for some time charges a very high price.