Tea e-auction platform in Siliguri soon .

Idukki, April 14 By the month end, Siliguri will join five other tea auction centres to become the sixth centre using the electronic platform for auctioning tea, according to the Tea Board Chairman, Mr Basudeb Banerjee.

New facility

With this, India will become the only country where tea auctions are held with the help of electronic platform, he said inaugurating the new orthodox manufacturing facility at Harrisons Malayalam Wallardie tea factory in Vandiperiyar.

Initially, 65 per cent of the total quantity of tea coming to auction centres in Siliguri will be using the electronic platform while the rest will continue to be auctioned through the manual system.

The manual system in Siliguri will continue for some more time to cater to the needs of large number of small buyers in the area, he said.

Rise in output

Earlier, he said the decade-long recession in the tea industry has ended with tea prices moving up during the last one year. The production will be up slightly in 2009-10.

However, he declined to give final figures saying that the Board is finalising data.

Mr N. Dharmaraj, Vice-President, Tea Division of HML, said the company has invested Rs 4 crore towards modernisation and for setting up the new facility for orthodox manufacture in Wallardie estate.

Prices of orthodox tea have improved in the last two years and currently 50 per cent of HML's approximately 20 million kg annual production is in orthodox form, giving it an overall price advantage over the competitors.

With Wallardie facility, this will go up to almost 60 per cent and going by current price trends it could increase by at least Rs 2 a kg, he said.

Capacity

The Wallardie factory has a capacity to process 50 tonnes of green leaf a day and annual capacity of 3.5 million kg of tea.

HML Wallardie orthodox teas will be exported to Russia, West Asia, European countries as orthodox grades are much sought after in the export market, he added.

The South Indian tea plantation industry was in the grip of financial crisis since 2000. However, the company has taken steps in reinvesting into its plantation in the form of infilling, replanting and modernising of factories.

This year, it is replanting 150 hectares of tea over and above 25 lakh plants that will be in-filled into the fields. With this, the company is expecting to increase the yield by 50 per cent in the next three years, he said.

Mr R.D. Nazeem, Executive Director, Tea Board, inaugurated HML Small Tea Growers Society with the objective of standardising and maintaining the quality of raw materials to the factory and help growers in realising the best prices for their produce.

Ms Biji Mol, MLA, Peerumedu, released a personal accident insurance policy for about 7,700 employees of HML tea estates formulated by the National Insurance Company and Tea Board for its workers in tea.

Source : Business Line