Tea Association of India (TAI) with Tea Forum of India (TFI), Gujarat organized a buyer-seller meet today at Mokalbari Tea Estate, Dibrugarh in Assam to facilitate exchange of ideas to bolster the industry.
Tea Association of India (TAI) is an association of Tea Producers based in Assam, West Bengal and Sikkim and Tea forum of India (TFI) is an association of major packeters based at Gujarat.
The delegation of TFI comprised of 30 packeters, mostly the young generation entrepreneurs. The Tea Forum of India delegation was led by Nidesh Shah.
One of the objectives of the meet was also a knowledge trip on Assam Tea for young entrepreneurs of the delegation who were visiting Assam for the first time.
The President of the Association, Ajay Jalan, hosted the event at his Mokalbari Tea Estate, Dibrugarh. A few tea producers of Dibrugarh and Tinsukia were also part of the event.
A field visit was organized by the Mokalbari TE management for the delegation. During the field visit, the delegation was apprised of various tea bushes clones, plucking methodology, practices to upkeep and maintainance the tea estate etc., including the challenges faced in the field in making quality tea.
The field visit was followed by visit to Mokalbari Orthodox tea factory. The buyers’ delegation, who mostly deal in CTC teas, showed great interest on orthodox teas and its manufacturing process. Many were keen to work on creating more awareness on orthodox teas drinking in India, which is mostly exported to other parts of the world.
The delegation made a visit to Mokalbari CTC factory and took keen interest in the process of manufacturing of CTC tea’s.
The field and factory visit was followed by Tea Tasting session where samples of various producers were laid out. The buyers expressed their views to the producers on the quality parameters based on which they consider buying their teas.
The last part of the session was exchange of ideas on ways to further strengthen the Tea Industry. There were common views of both the buyers and sellers that the consumption of Tea in India is low and hence there is a need to improve consumption of tea.
One of the ways the consumption of teas can be improved is by generic promotion of Tea highlighting its health benefits. The buyers’ delegation had many questions on the working and management of Tea Estates and were awe stuck to know the magnanimity of the operation that goes for a cup of tea.
