UDHAGAMANDALAM: Union Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said on Thursday that the plantation sector should reinvent itself in process, quality, branding and others aspects for better realisation.
Teaotia, who was speaking after inaugurating the India International Tea Convention 2016, added that the Tea Board itself needed to reinvent itself to meet the industry’s need, rather focusing only on subsidies.
Teaotia also the Tea sector to be more giving when it came to funding to make the Board more self reliable. “Last year, 43,000 hectares were replanted and 9,700 hectares were rejuvenated, which is only one third of what we set out to do. Last year price realisation in exports was 17 per cent higher, but we are still far away from Kenya, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. This is the time to focus on quality, but also on more production,” she said.
Pointing out that the Commerce Ministry was working with the Labour Ministry to create transparency in the wage structure, she urged state governments to provide basic facilities like water and housing through NREGA and other schemes, so that the burden on plantation sector would come down.
Meanwhile, N Dharmaraj, president, United Planters’ Association of Southern India, said that for more sustainable development, focus should be on improving quality, bringing in more value addition and becoming better at mass marketing.
Dharmaraj noted that today, of the 1,250 million kg of tea produced in India, around 20 per cent is being produced in South India.
And of the total production, 240 million kg are exported, of which the share of South India share was around 40 per cent.
Bidyananda Barkakoty, vice chairman, Tea Board also called for increasing dialogue between the stakeholders in the industry to overcome issues and challenges that the industry faces.
The Tea Board has decided to have a roadshow every year to put India into international map. Barkakoty added that price realisation was no longer able to keep phase with production costs. However, cutting down production was not the solution, he said. “We have to create demand,” he said. He also asked the Tea Board to support entrepreneurs to set up boutiques through financial support.