Tea Board sets deadline for plucking, processing Assam tea

Guwahati : The Tea Board of India has set deadlines for plucking of green tea leafs and processing of the same by the factories in order to ensure quality control in the seven northeastern states including Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Manipur.

While the Board has set December 10, 2018 as last date for plucking and receiving of green leaves for all the tea factories the seven states, December 11 was set as deadline for processing of the green leaf. All the factories must intimate to the Board about the closure of manufacturing by December 12 this year.

The move by the Board has elated the producers as it is believed that the move will help ensure quality of the Assam tea.

"We have observed over the years that some tea manufacturers reprocess teas from pruning litters etc. from the mid-December and these reprocessed teas are not fit for human consumption. Moreover these teas create an oversupply situation which also impacts the price of new season teas. This step by the Tea Board will help in overcoming these problems to a great extent," said Bidyananda Barkakoty, Adviser North Eastern Tea Association (NETA).

"We will also appeal to the Tea Board to allow the teas to be stored in the respective factories beyond December 20 so that the manufacturers do not have to bear extra cost for storing of teas at warehouse and do not have to bear unnecessary transportation cost etc," he said.

In another development, Estonian Ambassador to India Riho Kruuv called on Assam Governor Prof. Jagdish Mukhi in Raj Bhavan on Wednesday and said that the Assam tea should directly be exported to Estonia.

He also said that bilateral relations between Estonia and Assam can be expanded in the areas of information technology and said that Estonia can put its expertise for the promotion and expansion of IT and IT-enabled services in Assam.