KOLKATA: For the first time in 156 years, Darjeeling tea, the country’s first geographical indication (GI)-protected product, will cease to enter the wholesale markets worldwide — both via auction and private sales — from the second week of August.Hills tea gardens, closed since June 9 owing to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM)-led indefinite strike, will be putting their last lot of leaves on the block in the first two weeks of the next month.For Darjeeling tea connoisseurs, the impact will be felt in retail markets from the third week of September, industry experts said. Prices of Brand Darjeeling, which commands the highest rate among teas in the world, are expected to shoot up as retailers make the most of the stock that they have in hand.City-based J Thomas & Co, the world’s largest and oldest tea auctioneer, and two other tea-broking firms have received only 201 sacks of tea to be sold in Sale No. 32 in August. During the same period last year, they had brokered 4,933 packages of tea. Sale No. 32 of the pan-India tea auction refers to transactions on the 32nd week (second week of August) of the year. Darjeeling tea is available on auction across 42 weeks.“In all probability, arrival of Darjeeling leaves will dry up after Sale Nos. 31 and 32. We do not expect fresh tea from any of the 87 Darjeeling estates,” Krishan Katiyal, CMD, J Thomas & Co, told TOI. He added that this was unprecedented as the queen of teas had never disappeared from auctions even during the violent Gorkhaland agitations in the 1980s.Private sales, which is how around 80%-90% of Darjeeling tea make it to offshore markets, too, have dried up.“Of the 8.5 million kg of Darjeeling tea produced last year, around 6 million kg was sold by gardens to private customers, several of them overseas buyers. The rest ad made it to the auction centres,” said Darjeeling Tea Association (DTA) chairman Binod Mohan. This year, less than 2.5 million kg of tea leaves have been produced so far, of which 85% have been exported.Goodricke group, which is the biggest producer of Darjeeling tea with eight gardens in the Hills, sent less than 1,000 sacks of tea leaves for Sale No. 29 last week. “I don’t think there is any tea left in our stock. Sale no. 29 was the last possible avenue to sell and buy fresh Darjeeling tea from us,” said AN Singh, MD and CEO of Goodricke.In Sale No. 29, the pan-India auction system saw only 17,500 kg of Darjeeling tea leaves up for auction against a mammoth 94,500 kg on the same sale last year.With gardens managing to produce only 5% of the high quality and expensive second flush before the strike paralysed the Hills, there is a steady supply of Nepal tea into the markets. “This way, Brand Darjeeling will lose its export markets,” said Binod Bansal, former chairman of Indian Tea Exporters’ Association.“The long-term financial damage to Darjeeling tea gardens and potential loss of overseas markets built up over years of promotion raises serious questions over the viability and survival of many gardens. Packers are compelled to compromise on quality and pay high prices to get even a few kilos on the shelf,” said Anshuman Kanoria, chairman, Calcutta Tea Traders’ Association (CTTA), and vice-chairman of Indian Tea Exporters’ Association (ITEA).Even if the strike ends by end-August, of which there seems little chance, producers will have to wait for more than a month before they get fresh leaves. Rain production may yield leaves some time in August-end depending on how much of the bushes are slashed. Sampling, trading, bidding, buying and exports could resume only in mid-September after a loss of almost 40% of the annual production.“In future, Darjeeling tea might need a Project Tiger-like initiative to save it from near extinction,” said the DTA chairman.