India’s Tea Board Mulls to Produce Eco-friendly Tea

Agartala, February 20, 2020:

Tea Board India is contemplating a paradigm shift in the tea industry by tapping into the eco-friendly way of producing tea. It plans to use solar energy for processing tea instead of the coal based method.

Tea Board India Deputy Chairman Arun Kumar Roy said that the coal based method of producing tea has negative impact on the environment and therefore, “This is in view of the environment issues.”

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While speaking with the reporters in Agartala, Roy informed that the Tea Board is in discussion to figure out ways to set up solar power plant as a resource for the industry.

It may be mentioned here that as per the records shared by Tripura Tea Development Corporation (TTDC), the tea industry alone sources 9,000 metric tons of coal every to get all the plucked green leaves processed.

Some of the factories are using biomass briquettes, an organic cost-effective substitute to coal instead. Therefore, the Tea Board’s plan for the next three years is to lay heavy stress on organic tea production in order to develop tea from the Northeastern states.

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“Black tea is being largely consumed in India but at the same time green tea, orthodox tea and organic tea consumption has ostensibly gained more popularity across the globe. We will adapt to this changing market in order to cater climate resilient tea is a sustainable way”, he said.

He also said Northeast India will become an export hub as per Government of India’s Look East Policy and tea will get a high priority in this.

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The centre has recently set up tea clusters at Dibrugarh and Jorhat, for which work has already started. It may be mentioned here that India jumped from 110 million Kg orthodox tea production to 135 million Kg last year.

The official also said that a cloud based action system would be introduced so that small tea growers could fetch the benefits of easier trading avenues.

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