Your daily chai hides a complex, science-based business under pressure. Kusum Tea Estate director Vijay Mitraka takes NEXIS students behind the leaves — from a 40-year-old garden to AI on the auction floor.
North Bengal and tea are inseparable — but few people think about the business behind the beverage. In a NEXIS student podcast, Vijay Mitraka, director of Kusum Tea Estate (a major North Bengal manufacturer), unpacked the industry’s history, its challenges, and where young minds can make a difference.
Along the way, he made a point close to home for his hosts: Indian education is too theoretical — and practical schools like NEXIS are the fix.
A garden with 40 years of history
Kusum Tea Estate sits in Chopra, spanning roughly 450 acres. Set up by Vijay’s grandfather and his brothers — on what was once a pineapple garden — it became one of the first tea gardens established outside the conventional British-era tea zones. Nearly four decades on, it’s a reminder that a family business is also a living piece of a region’s economic history.
Vijay’s own path is telling: schooling at St. Paul’s Darjeeling, then engineering (“at that time there were limited options — we didn’t have undergrad B-school courses like NEXIS”), four years working in Chennai, and a return to the family business. “After coming to NEXIS,” one student host reflects, “I realised life — and business — is not just theory.” Vijay agrees the Indian system “lacks a lot; it’s very theoretical.”
Where young people fit in
Ask Vijay where opportunity lies, and he points squarely at the next generation. Tea, he argues, hasn’t grown as a youth beverage the way coffee has — largely due to weak branding and image. “Tea needs to reclaim its crown as the go-to beverage for youngsters, and young people can play a big part, especially in branding and changing tea’s image across India.”
“Tea is a very science-based product — the harvesting, the pruning, the plucking, the manufacturing. Over the past 15–20 years it’s unfortunately been treated more as a business than a science.”
— Vijay Mitraka, Director, Kusum Tea Estate
▶ Watch the full story on the NEXIS YouTube channel.
Why the tea sector is under pressure
Vijay is candid about the headwinds. Quality has slipped as tea shifted from a science to a commodity. Costs — especially labour wages — keep rising, while selling prices haven’t kept pace, squeezing “price realisation.” And an oversupply, driven by small growers planting tea on modest plots (often at inferior quality), has pushed volumes up and prices down. The result: some big players have exited manufacturing altogether. His suggested fix isn’t heavy-handed government pricing (it’s an open market) but stricter quality checks and factory licensing.
AI, from the auction floor to the tea bush
Where does technology help? Everywhere, Vijay says. On the selling side, manual auctions have already moved online, and AI will play a growing role in branding and marketing. On the growing side — since tea is deeply climate-dependent — AI can help forecast rainfall and diagnose pest and pathogen attacks, so planters can take timely, targeted action. It’s a vivid example of why understanding both business and technology matters, exactly the blend NEXIS builds into its curriculum.
- Kusum Tea Estate (Chopra, ~450 acres) is a 40-year-old garden and a slice of North Bengal’s economic history.
- Young people can reshape tea through branding — reclaiming it as a youth beverage.
- The sector faces falling quality, rising costs, weak price realisation and oversupply.
- AI can help with online auctions, marketing, rainfall forecasting and pest diagnosis.
Learn business from the people who run it
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Frequently asked questions
What are the biggest challenges facing the North Bengal tea industry?
Declining quality, rising costs (especially labour), weak price realisation, and oversupply from small growers — pressures that have pushed some big players out of manufacturing.
How can young people contribute to the tea industry?
Especially through branding and marketing — helping tea reclaim its image as a go-to beverage for young people, and improving quality and awareness.
What is CTC tea?
CTC stands for “Crush, Tear, Curl” — the process used to manufacture that style of tea. It’s a relatively simple, quality-controlled process.
How can AI help the tea business?
Through online auctions and marketing on the selling side, and rainfall forecasting plus pest and pathogen diagnosis on the growing side.
Based on a NEXIS student podcast interview with Vijay Mitraka, director of Kusum Tea Estate, North Bengal.
