India is the world’s leading commercial producer of tea. It is popular not only as a stimulating health drink, but also as a foreign exchange earner for India. The product variations of tea consist of green tea, packet tea, tea bags or cans, instant tea and flavored tea in India. Though both North and South India are engaged in tea production, North India has been the major producing region, contributing to more than 75% of the total production. The export-production ratio of Indian tea recorded a gradual decline, whereas the domestic consumption and production ratio of Indian tea demonstrated an upward movement during the study period. This study demonstrates the negative relationship between production of tea and exports of tea from India during 1950 to 1998. This study also brings out the exciting fact that the production of tea is largely confined to South Asian and African countries which are all developing countries and about 90% of their production is consumed in the developed countries. Further, this study highlights that India and Sri Lanka are the leading countries and Indonesia, East Africa and Latin America are the minors in the tea production. The country concentration index indicated the highly fluctuating trend in the production of tea in the world. It is evident from the study that the country concentration index of tea is less than 40% since 1986 due to the entry of the East African countries into tea production. Finally this study recommends that the increase in the level of tea production, adopting fine plucking to maintain good quality, and introduction of innovative tea products are very crucial to maintain the supremacy of India as the top producer of tea in the world.

India is the worldís leading commercial producer of tea .Tea, as a non-alcoholic beverage, is one of the chief joys of life and no other drink except water is consumed by so many and so much. Tea as an immemorial crop has been cultivated for so long that its home as a valid plant is a matter of speculation. Tea has always been a favorite among the healthconscious consumers according to scientific research. As a beverage, tea gives significant benefits to the consumers. Tea has nutritional properties and is rich in vitamins. It is also fascinating to learn that regular intake of tea helps to control health disorders and in preventing cancer. Apart from this, tea also has a beneficial effect on two long established health risk factors like high blood cholesterol and high blood pressure. Thus, one can get perfect health with a hot cup of tea. Not only as a drink, it is also playing an important role in India as a foreign exchange earner. Tea occupied the glorious position as a major traditional export in 1950s and 1960s. Later on the share of tea has been gradually declining in the estimates of total exports from India. In spite of this fact, the share of tea in agricultural exports is still significant in India.