Tripura to get first tea auction centre
The century-old tea industry in Tripura is all set to get an auction centre to help fetch better prices for finished products. The state government has decided to establish the auction centre to help the tea planters, who earlier used to sell products at the Guwahati or Kolkata auction centre.
Team RuralVoice
The century-old tea industry in Tripura is all set to get an auction centre to help fetch better prices for finished products.
The state government has decided to establish the auction centre to help the tea planters, who earlier used to sell products at the Guwahati or Kolkata auction centre.
Tripura has 60 tea estates out of which 42 are owned by private players, 13 operated by co-operative societies and the remaining belong to the Tripura Tea Development Corporation Ltd (TTDC).
Around 80,000 people are directly and indirectly associated with the tea industry in the northeastern state, officials said. The tea produced in the state got its logo and brand 'Tripureswari Tea' in 2018.
A NITI Aayog team, which visited the state recently, gave the green signal to set up the auction centre in West Tripura's Durgabari Tea estate, an official said.
This will fulfil the long-pending demand of tea planters of the state, which produces 90-lakh kg tea annually.
The TTDC has welcomed the state government's decision to set up the auction centre. This will help the tea platers to sell their products at a reasonable price, its chairman Samir Ghosh said.
The TTDC will now press for subsidies in transportation and state GST to attract buyers from even outside the state. "We have to provide some extra benefits to the tea buyers to bring them to the proposed auction centre," Ghosh added.
