Tea Brew hardshell meet

Tea growers in north Bengal are thinking of holding a convention to project the brew produced in the Dooars and Terai.

The India International Tea Convention (IITC) in Guwahati, which ended on Saturday, has left the stakeholders of the brew industry in north Bengal unhappy. Other than a session titled Indian Panorama, in which every variety and place of tea production was highlighted, the CTC brew produced in the Terai and Dooars was never mentioned during the event, said one of them.

“Tea from north Bengal was hardly highlighted,” said N.K. Basu, the principal adviser to the Indian Tea Planters’ Association. “We feel it necessary to project the tea produced in the Terai and Dooars to augment its export like the Assam tea. The latter was presented as a premium brand at the IITC.”

After Guwahati, it is a two-day event in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra that has left many growers in north Bengal toying with the idea of holding a similar meet, focusing on the region’s tea.

Tying up with Tea Board of India and the Institute of Himalayan Bioscience Technology, the Kangra Valley Small Tea Producers’ Association will organize the conference titled Kangra Vision 2020 at Palampur from tomorrow.

“The basic idea is to promote the orthodox tea that we produce here for export and also for domestic consumption,” J.L. Butail, the president of the association, told The Telegraph over phone from Kangra.

Basu now plans to call up the tea board and the Consultative Committee of Plantation Associations, an apex body of planters, to take the initiative for the north Bengal convention.

“Such an event will help a lot in promoting our tea overseas,” said Anand Agarwal, the president of the North Bengal Tea Producers’ Association.

Source: The Telegraph