India's tea exports have risen 93% by value in a decade, the government said on International Tea Day, and the malty Assam cup is much of what the world is buying.

Tea shipments earned Rs 8,719 crore in the 2025-26 financial year, up from Rs 4,509 crore in 2013-14, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said, marking the day, May 21. Assam grows more than half of India's tea, so a large share of that leaf is the brisk, full-bodied stuff of the Brahmaputra valley.

"Tea is an emotion," Goyal said, calling it more than a beverage. He credited better quality standards and promotion by the Tea Board of India, and noted that cultivation has spread across the northeast, into Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and beyond the old districts.

By weight and measure, the export desk and the breakfast table are pouring the same thing. The strong cup you take with milk before the day makes its demands is, on the figures, the cup a growing number of the world's kitchens now want too.

Sources: India Today NE, Assam tea drives India's export surge as tea shipments rise 93% to Rs 8,719 crore (May 21, 2026).