The three French students in Siliguri. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

Siliguri, May 15: The Champagne of the East is giving a new high to the makers of the world’s best wines.

With tea steadily gaining popularity among the French, some professionals and university students from France have started doing their industrial training with Indian tea companies.

“There is a growing market for tea in France, as in the whole of Europe,” Galaud Marjorie, a student from Lycee Bremontier, Bordeaux, said. She and two other French girls, Legastelois Marine from the same university and Dreyer Audrey from Lycee Fresnel, Caen, are in Siliguri to learn about tea marketing with Lochan Tea Company, a blending, packaging and exporting company. All three of them are undergraduate students of international business.

“We had heard a lot about Darjeeling Tea, or the Champagne of the East, and wanted to explore the land that produced it and know the people behind it,” Marine said.

Audrey hopes her hands-on training in tea business will help her land a job. “I don’t want to limit myself to France and would like to try my hand in jobs outside the country as well,” she said.

Ankit Lochan, a director of the company, said it all started with queries from overseas clients.

“Our buyers worldwide complained about a dearth of professionals trained in the tea business,” he said. “Last year, we trained a French youth in all aspects of tea-handling — blending, packaging and marketing. He has now set up his own tea-import business in Paris.”

The word spread and Lochan Tea is set to receive more trainees this year. “We will have seven persons — one each from Australia and England and the rest from France,” Ankit Lochan said. “Next year, we hope to have more than 25 candidates.”

The company has devised a formal course in consultation with experts from North Bengal University’s Institute for Plantation Science and Management. Lochan Tea has also roped in industry veterans for special lectures. “We are dealing with topics like quality aspects of tea, handling and processing of raw-material and marketing of tea,” said I.D. Singh, the director of the institute and one of the resource persons.

While the present batch is here for a two-month “refresher course”, Lochan Tea is in the process of designing a more detailed six-month course. The fees — $ 150 a month for a short-term course and $ 1000 for the six-month course — are paid by the students or companies sponsoring them.

“We will set up a full-fledged school for tea management studies exclusively for foreign students,” Ankit Lochan said.

The director added: “The whole exercise will have a spiralling effect in promoting Indian tea globally. The ones we train will not only carry the word around, but also help set up marketing channels for exporting Indian tea worldwide.”