Tea Board signed MoU with Russia

Moscow : The Tea Board of India has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Russia's 'Roschaikofe' association to promote export of premium quality tea to this country in an effort to restore the flagging image of the Indian beverage in the local market.

The MoU signed last night by the Chairman of the Tea Board Basudev Banerjee and Ramaz Chanturiya, the General Director of 'Roschaikofe' association of Russian tea and coffee traders and packers, provides for creating favorable conditions for activities of tea organizations to boost trade-turnover.

In a major drive to recapture dominant position lost over last five years to Sri Lanka, the Tea Board Chairman had brought with him over 20-member strong delegation of the Indian industry involved in growing, processing and exporting premium quality traditional tea from Assam, Darjeeling and Nilgiris.

In the Soviet days, India was the largest supplier of black tea to the Russia market. However, since the break up of the USSR the local consumers have shifted their preferences to premium quality orthodox (leaf) tea from CTC (granulated) earlier imported from India in large volumes.

Addressing the Indo-Russian tea traders’ business meet, the Tea Board Chairman underscored that quality has to be priority in exporting tea to Russia.

"Quality is the priority and not quantity and volumes," Banerjee said.

Source: The Economic Times

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New Neutralization scheme for tea exporters

The government is formulating an alternative duty neutralization scheme for tea exporters, commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath said here Monday. "The new scheme is in the final stage. It will be announced soon," he said, speaking at the 144th annual conference of United Planters' Association of Southern India (UPASI) being held in this southern India tea and coffee growers' hub.

The Duty Entitlement Pass Book Scheme expires on March 31, 2008. The commerce ministry has asked the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and the Economic Law Forum to work out an alternative scheme, which will neutralize levies (customs and excise duties along with state levies) while being WTO compatible.

The minister also said that the government would set up a committee within two weeks to look into the problems of small tea growers and suggest remedial measures. The panel will include officials, representatives from the Tea Board and small growers.

Noting that the allocation for the plantation sector had been more than doubled to Rs.30 billion in the 11th Five Year Plan, Kamal Nath said the government would take a decision soon on whether small growers needed a special package or if it was necessary to fix minimum prices.

Source: India Interacts

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Tea diversification with the change in law

Coonoor : India's struggling tea sector is seeking changes in the law to allow for diversification into other crops to fight rising production costs and increase returns, officials said on Monday.

At present laws such as the Plantation labor Act, land reform acts of various states and Minimum Wages Act inhibit diversification and need drastic overhaul, said J.K. Thomas, president of the United Planters' Association of Southern India.

"Even while a plantation commodity is economically inviable, we cannot change over to alternate crop because of the restrictive and archaic laws which have outlived their purpose," he said.

It is high time that necessary legal amendments were brought about for allowing tea estates to diversify into other crops like bamboo, jatropha and palm, Thomas told a planters meet in Coonoor.

Indian tea prices remained almost steady at an average of 65 rupees per kg in the month of July, a gain of one rupee from the same time last year, according to data from the Tea Board.

But prices of other plantations crops such as rubber and coffee have increased 10-20 percent due to higher demand.

"In India the amount of money spent on wages and labor welfare are higher than other emerging countries like Vietnam," Basudeb Banerjee, chairman of the state-run Tea Board of India, told Reuters.

India, the world's largest producer and consumer of tea, has strong regulations to protect workers' rights and employees have powerful unions, which often guarantee them free electricity, water and food as part of their salary packages.

The area under tea plantation is estimated at about 521,500 hectares. About 130,000 growers and 1.26 million workers are associated with the industry.

Source: Reuters India

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Flood affects tea gardens in Assam

Guwahati , Assam : Stranded without supplies for a fortnight, as many as eight tea estates in Assam’s flood-ravaged Barak Valley have shut down and many more could cease production over the next few days.

There has been no rail communication between the Barak Valley and the rest of the state since June 25, when a bridge near Lumding collapsed under the weight of a freight train. A fortnight ago, a massive landslide cut off the land route, too. The landslide at Sonapur in Meghalaya blocked a 300-metre stretch of National Highway 44, the valley’s lifeline.

Floods compounded the crisis, damaging interior roads linking estates in Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj districts beyond repair. The swirling waters of the Barak and its tributaries also caused extensive damage to tea bushes in about 30 plantations.

Tea estates of the valley today sent an SOS to the Tarun Gogoi government through their associations.

The secretary of the Tea Association of India (TAI) in Guwahati, D. Deka, told the Telegraph that most estates would close down unless the government intervened. “Plantations have had no rations, fuel and other items required to run a tea estate for a fortnight. The Barak Valley tea industry is truly in dire straits.”

About 60 of the 100-odd Barak gardens are affiliated to the association.

Their worst fear is not being able to pay Puja bonus to workers, leading to a potentially violent labour unrest. “We haven’t sold any tea in recent weeks, which has reduced cash flow to a trickle. We cannot pay bonus from empty coffers, can we?” a tea estate manager asked.

Since factories are not running, plucking has had to be stopped, too. Tea leaves have to be processed within a maximum of 20 hours of plucking to produce tea of good quality.

Deka said the number of trucks being allowed to ply on the damaged highway was inadequate for an industry that required a healthy supply chain. “The magnitude of the crisis would have been less had the rail network been functioning. Since trains are the main source of transport to these gardens, supplies have been erratic ever since the rail bridge near Lumding collapsed.”

Member estates of the TAI procure 4,906 quintals of rice and 3,720 quintals of wheat from the Food Corporation of India every month for distribution among their workers. Plantations affiliated to the Assam Branch of Indian Tea Association procure 4,030 quintals of rice and 2,770 quintals of wheat.

The bulk of these consignments is ferried to the valley by train.

“It is impossible to carry such huge quantities of food by trucks on a hilly road,” an official said.

The FCI has only one warehouse, in Silchar town of Cachar, for the entire valley.

Sources in Northeast Frontier Railway said repairs on the damaged rail bridge would not be completed until October.

Source: The Telegraph

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International tea producer's forum set up

Bangalore : The world's leading tea-growing countries have decided to launch an International Tea Producers' Forum (ITPF), the equivalent of the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries, the International Coffee Organisation and the Association of National Rubber Producing Countries.

The decision to set up ITPF was taken in principle on the sidelines of the just concluded International Tea Convention in Colombo. The meeting was attended by the 14 leading tea-producing nations, including India, China, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Indonesia, Malawi, Tanzania and Japan. The modalities and the by-laws will be finalised at the India International Tea Festival in Guwahati this November.

Tea Board vice-chairman and United Planters' Association of Southern India (Upasi) president J K Thomas told on Monday that one of the key objectives behind the setting up of ITPF was to address the problem of a global surplus, expected to continue till 2014 by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization's Inter-Governmental Group on Tea.

ITPF is looking at boosting demand in both producing and populous markets, particularly developing nations like India (which has a per capita consumption of 690 gm) and China (below 600 gm), compared to 1.4 kg in Sri Lanka and 1 kg in Pakistan. India's present annual consumption is around 725 million kg and a production of 950 million kg. ITPF will seek to enhance consumption through generic promotion and by emphasising the health benefits of tea.

ITPF will also look at the possibility of curtailing expansion. ITPF will try and recommend other alternative crops to tea, depending on the cultivation pattern in each tea- producing country.

ITPF will also focus on the stringent maximum residue levels (MRLs) for pesticides and chemicals adopted by leading tea-importing markets like the EU, the US, Canada and Japan. Canada is even said to be considering a zero-tolerance MRL norm for tea imports. Some tea-producing nations have pointed out that the MRLs for tea are much lower than for other produce like fruit and vegetables in these very markets.

Source: The Economic Times

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Assam Tea coin in Canada

Guwahati , Assam : At a time when the tea sector is passing through rough patches, traditional communities engaged in brewing tea are experimenting with innovative tea products and methods.

The Singpho community, which is credited for being pioneers in the discovery of tea, have developed “Tea Coin”. This organic tea has already hit the stands of Canadian tea market and now the growers are making attempts to export it to the US.

Tea Coin is sold in Canadian market under the brand name of 'Phalap', as tea is known as phalap in Singpho language. Two gram of tea are packed in coin shape, which can be consumed by dissolving in hot water.

Tea Coin is marketed by Small Tea Co-operative, a Canada-based company. Rajesh Singpho, managing partner of an Assam-based firm, Singpho agro products, told ET: "Consignment comprising 10,000 pieces of Tea Coin have been sent to Canada. We have very good feedback from the customers. We have found that there is market for this variety of tea there. We have received feedback from North American companies on our traditional tea and they are keen to import Singpho tea.” He added tea manufactured in Margherita in Upper Assam, the heartland of this community, is based on the traditional method. It is chemical-free. Even the tea containers are made of bamboo which helps in retaining the aroma. “We produce tea without using modern machine that keeps entire nutrients of tea intact. From two grams of tea, at least two to four cups of tea can be prepared."

Mr Singpho further said about 200 young people are involved in tea farming. "We are presently plucking tea from around 100 bighas. We had a marathon presentation before the tea experts in Canada to establish our brand and we are now planning to expand our market in other places."

According to historical sources, it was in 1823 that Robert Bruce, a British trader, first discovered tea plants with the help of a local Singpho Bisagam chieftain.

Before his death in 1825, Bruce passed on his knowledge to his brother Charles, who sent seeds of the plant to Kolkata (then Calcutta) in 1831.

In 1833, the British lost the monopoly of tea trade with China and the tea committee dispatched secretary George Gordon to China to study the methods and begin tea plantation in Assam.

Gordon returned with the Chinese variety of tea and workers and imported labour from Bihar and Orissa. It was found that the local variety of the plant was more suited to the climate. Crossing it with the Chinese tea plant led to Indian hybrid tea, which has great variability and vigour. This has been called the most important evolution of the commercial tea planting.

Before the discovery, tea plants used to grow in the jungles with local people eating the leaves as a vegetable with garlic. After Robert’s death, his plan to establish a nursery was followed up his brother Charles who was then an employee of the East India Company. On May 8, 1838, 350 pounds (159 kg) of Assam tea were dispatched to London and sold at India House on January 10, 1839.

Source: The Economic Times

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Fight back strategy to boost production and sales

Guwahati , (AFP) : India's hard-hit tea industry has launched an aggressive "fight back" strategy to boost production and sales in the face of stiff challenges from rival nations churning out cheaper brews.

India is the world's second largest tea producer and Rangup a record 955 million kilogram (2,105 pound) crop last year with northeastern Assam state accounting for 55 percent.

China, the largest producer of the brew, made 1.02 billion kilos in 2006.

But prices have been under pressure since the 1990s.

"The new tea strategy now is to chase both volume and value in exports. We're getting positive results and 2007 is turning out to be a good year for tea," India's junior commerce minister Jairam Ramesh told AFP.

As part of its campaign to boost production and quality, New Delhi launched in June a 48-billion-rupee (1.2-billion-dollar) package to help the beleaguered industry replant aging tea bushes.

"The Special Purpose Tea Fund is a project covering about 200,000 hectares (494,210 acres) in 1,000 of India?s nearly 1,600 plantations," Ramesh said.

India?s production is expected to jump by close to 40 percent once aging bushes over 50 years old are replanted or rejuvenated -- a process involving cutting or pruning, officials said.

"We will also plant high-yielding clones which would nearly double production and give us premium tea," Dhiraj Kakaty, an official of the Indian Tea Association, the top tea administration body, said.

India?s 1.5-billion-dollar-a-year tea industry has been facing a crisis with prices dropping in weekly auctions since 1998 and exports plummeting.

The industry now is showing signs of resurgence, officials said in Assam, which has over 800 plantations that employ around one million people.

A kilogram of good quality tea fetched 73 rupees in recent weekly auctions compared to an average 68 rupees last year. And exports rose by eight million kilograms to 200 million kilograms in 2006 from the previous year.

"These are good indicators and we're sure prices will firm and exports increase," the minister said.

Prices, however, are still below those fetched in the late 1990s when a kilogram of good quality tea from Assam or South India got 95 to 100 rupees.

The slump in prices and exports is largely attributed to cheap, inferior quality teas produced by many new growers like Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Iran. This has meant Indian teas are facing stiffer competition in the global market.

"(But) the overall mood is vibrant with the Indian tea industry now beginning to look up," the tea association's Kakaty said.

"Overseas demand is on the increase mainly due to very good quality teas produced by us," he said. Pakistan, Egypt, Iran and Iraq and countries in the Middle East figure prominently in the export list.

Spurred by recent successes in boosting foreign buyer interest, India's commerce ministry is organizing a three-day International Tea Festival in Guwahati, the main city of Assam, in November.

The festival, dubbed the "Great Indian Tea Party," is expected to draw foreign buyers with 400 delegates set to arrive from around the world, including from Britain, Pakistan, Iran and Egypt.

Apart from meetings to showcase different kinds of Indian teas, the festival will also offer delegates a treat -- a tea made by Assam's Singpho tribal people.

Long before commercial production began in the late 1830s, tea plants grew wild in Assam's jungles. Singpho tribe members ate the leaves as a vegetable with garlic and also drank water brewed with the leaves.

Source: Google News

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Insurance cover for tea growers

Coonoor : Indcoserve, the apex body of the various industrial co-operative tea factories called the Indco factories, has decided to cover the members of these factories under a new insurance scheme being mooted by the Tea Board.

The scheme including life, medical, accident and education is expected to benefit some 20,000 small growers. The insurance companies have come out with attractive packages whereby a group of five members in a family is covered for at least Rs 30,000 per year in the best hospitals of the Nilgiris, Coimbatore and nearby districts.

The annual premium involved is just a few hundred rupees, said R.D. Nazeem, Executive Director, Tea Board. Tea Board would pay a part of the premium.

Source: Sify.com

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