By Ashis Biswas
KOLKATA: In Tripura, the fledgling tea industry received a major boost a few days ago with the inauguration of Agartala Tea Auction Centre (ATAC) — the fifth such unit in India. State Chief Minister Mr Manik Saha, while thanking the Tea Board for its support and co-operation for planters, also noted that new e-auction facilities would now help ensure greater sales and market access for local growers.
With 54 plantations and around 2600 smaller producers in business, tea production in Tripura has increased during the past decade to 9 million kilos annually, from around 5/6 million to start with. In the Northeast region, Tripura is a distant second to Assam in terms of production, but its contribution to the overall tea trade relative to its size has been impressive.
Despite being the smallest state in the region, Tripura enjoys a significant share in the rubber and timber-based industries as well. A steady growth in the tea trade and business can only open up fresh economic opportunities for unemployed youths in the region as a whole. Exports to Bangladesh, Thailand and Myanmar too, are poised for growth.
Over 15,000 people are working in Tripura tea plantations, mostly in an unorganised manner. Tea is grown over an area of nearly 6670 hectares at present although there are no accurate details about the extent of production etc in the smaller unorganised sector. The bulk of the local production consists of ‘black’ CTC varieties (cut, torn and curled). On average the prices range upwards from Rs 325 a kilo.
However some producers have already begun commercial production of new organic varieties in a few select spots, albeit on a very small scale. The objective is to target the affluent importers in the ASEAN region and beyond. For this small group of progressive entrepreneurs, the facilities offered by the new ATAC would be very helpful. Over time, tea exports from Tripura can, trade circles believe, can increase generally too. As part of the general drive to increase exports, work is already on to develop ‘Tripureswari,’ a new high quality organic variety, alongwith other hand-rolled varieties of leaves.
Another major positive aspect of the tea trade in Tripura has been the official attention given to the needs of ailing/struggling smaller plantations and gardens. State officials have coordinated their activities with various Central government departments, researchers and Universities to help revive a number of ‘sick’ plantations in Unakoti, Belonia and Kalyanpur areas, addressing specific needs of individual gardens.
The ATAC when fully functional, would help cut down on the average transaction time involving communications between Tripura producers and importers/ central and foreign governments, or other major centres in Assam, West Bengal or Kerala. . Transport costs, would also be reduced. On average, experts believe, there would be a 40% saving of time in most operations. Earlier, transactions/despatching of items/deliveries of goods between Agartala and Guwahati or Kolkata often suffered from delays, breakdowns and other issues. Now with ATAC going online, most of such problems would hopefully end. The Tripura Tea Development Corporation (TTDC) too would no longer need to provide for major subsidies to local producers/entrepreneurs in their problematic dealings with Kolkata/Guwahati centres. (IPA Service)
