Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today sought National Drink status for tea from the Centre, which will provide an impetus to the consumption and promotion of Assam Tea. Tea is indigenous to India and is the most widely consumed beverage across the length and breadth of the nation and is the cheapest beverage in the world next only to water, Gogoi said while addressing a consultation of stakeholders of the tea industry with Union Minister of state for Industry and Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman here.
"The declaration of mango as the national fruit of India has not restricted the growth of apple or other fruits. Similarly, declaring tea as the national drink of our country will in no way affect the growth of other beverages and they will always have their own respective market shares," Gogoi, whose speech was read in absentia by Assam Industry Minister Pradyut Bordoloi, said. The Assam government has already declared tea as the official state drink and taken measures to promote Assam Tea as a brand in the international market by participating in International Trade Fairs. He also urged initiatives to ensure that the Tea Board of India aggressively implement a strategy for promotion of Assam Tea abroad.
Gogoi pointed out that there was a need to modernise the packaging of tea in Assam as the state produces high quality of tea, but there was an acute dearth of packaging expertise in Assam which was essential to create demand in the export markets. The Centre must emphasis on these areas as these steps are essential if there is to be an overall increase in exports of tea from India, he said.
The Chief Minister said Assam alone produces about 600 million kg of tea annually which was around 50 per cent of India's production.
"Tea Board should have correspondingly invested its resources and focused on its activities in Assam. This, however, has not been the case," he said. Gogoi pointed out that the primary reason for this was that the headquarters of all commodity boards like coffee, rubber, spices and tobacco were located in those states where the product was mainly grown, but the Tea Board was the only exception as its headquarters were not located in Assam. "The Tea Board's head office should ideally be situated in Assam which will give an impetus to its activities in the most important tea growing region," he said.
Gogoi also urged the Centre that small tea growers be allowed to set-up Mini and Micro tea factories within their plantation areas as this would lead to improvement of plucking standards of tea leaves as handling of the leaves would be much less and quality would improve. Organic cultivation should be encouraged and the Organic Certification cost for small tea growers should be borne by the Tea Board along with introduction of a special scheme for compensation of crop loss during the conversion period from inorganic to organic, he said.
In this context, it was important that the Tea Board should effectively carry out one of its core functions of financial and technical assistance to the unorganised small growers' sector, Gogoi added. The Indian tea industry has to be competitive by laying stress on enhancing productivity and quality as well as making it cost effective by using the latest technologies, the Chief Minister said.
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