Image copyright Typhoo Tea Image caption The company pays for ingredients for its herbal teas in euros The cost of the ingredient depends on the quality of the leaf. A typical 80kg bag of black tea could be bought for 90 to 100 at the beginning of the year. The company says that same bag now costs 120 to 150 at the weekly international auctions. In other words, it is paying an awful lot more for the same amount of tea.
'Serious situation' "We don't have big enough margins between us and retailers to absorb all these costs. We're looking at how to mitigate some of them, from our labour, overheads and marketing costs, which will affect the growth of the business and employment in long run. But some of these currency costs will have to be passed on, as neither us nor the retailers can absorb any more cost increases," Mr Saha says. Like other suppliers, he is in discussions with the supermarkets about price rises. He denies posturing to try to secure a better deal. "Absolutely not. This is a really serious situation for us. Nobody wants to do this, but ultimately some of the costs will go to the shoppers. There is no other option," Mr Saha says. "It's one of the favourite drinks of this country. It's very unfortunate. It's nobody's fault - it's due to the economic conditions."
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