by Animesh Deb
New Delhi [India]Jan 15 (ANI): Tea growers in Assam have celebrated one year of the plantation industry reaching an important milestone of 200 years.
The adjoining tea plantations in the uplands of the state, hitherto uncultivated and unselected, were first established in 1823.
Globally renowned for its richly colored and aromatic tea, Assam’s tea industry, which is the largest in the country, provides livelihood to lakhs of people, who are directly or indirectly dependent on the plantations. The state is famous for both orthodox and CTC (crush, tear, curl) varieties of tea.
In 1823, Robert the Bruce discovered wild tea plants growing wild in the upper Brahmaputra valley. Subsequently, a tea garden was started by the government in 1833 in the then Lakhimpur district.
As of today, Assam now produces around 700 million kg of tea annually and accounts for almost half of India’s total tea production. The state also generates an estimated annual foreign exchange earnings equal to Rs 3,000 crore.
India contributes 23 per cent to the overall global tea production and employs around 1.2 million workers in the tea plantation sector.
The first event to celebrate 200 years of Assam tea took place in Jorhat last week. It was organized under the banner of North Eastern Tea Association (NETA).
On that occasion, the book ‘Two Hundred Years of Assam Tea 1823-2023: The Genesis and Development of Indian Tea’ written by tea researcher and author Pradeep Baruah was released. The book chronicles the entire 200-year journey of Assam’s tea industry, while also documenting notable events in its history.
“This book is a comprehensive account of the tea industry of Assam dating back two hundred years to the discovery of wild tea plants by Robert Bruce in 1823 with the help of Maniram Datta Baruah. It also has a complete chronology of two hundred years of the tea industry from 1823 to 2023,” said Bidyanand Barkakoti, advisor to NETA.
In addition, a Tea Academy, with renowned planter Manoj Jalan as its first director, will run long-term and short-term courses to create trained manpower for the tea industry.
Coming back to some of the major developments in the state’s tea industry, the Toklai Research Station was established in 1911 near Jorhat in Upper Assam with a view to conduct proper research on cultivation, manufacturing and other key aspects related to it. The research center has played a vital role in disseminating knowledge over the years to enhance the overall scale of tea production.
The next major development was the establishment of a tea auction center in Guwahati. Proper marketing of tea in the region has always been a problem and the opening of the Tea Auction Center in Guwahati in 1970 marked the beginning of a new era for the stakeholders. Previously, the Tea Auction Center in Calcutta was the only point of sale for Assam tea.
The tea industry in Assam was earlier dominated by large size plantations run by corporates.
Small Tea Growers – Emerging Sector:
Tea plantation has come a full circle in Assam as thousands of small farmers have shifted from mainly paddy to growing the crop. The tea garden business has seen unemployed youth taking up tea cultivation as a business venture. Some even grow it in their backyard, while many have started their tea story through startups.
But not everything is ideal, and the industry continues to deal with a number of perennial issues.
For many years, India’s tea industry has been grappling with issues such as rising production costs, relatively stagnant consumption, low prices and crop losses due to climate change. It also faces the challenge of gaining a foothold and maintaining its ground in a competitive global market.
The tea business is cost-intensive, with fixed costs accounting for 60-70 per cent of the total investment.
Assam recently increased the daily wages for tea garden workers by Rs 27, over and above other benefits to which they are entitled. After the revision, tea workers in Assam’s Barak Valley will get Rs 210 per day and for Brahmaputra Valley Rs 232. Just before the state elections in 2021, the BJP government in Assam hiked the wage rate by Rs 38.
The tea community in Assam, which comprises a major chunk of the state’s population, plays an important role in dozens of assembly constituencies.
Meanwhile, Assam is now working on a new policy for its 200-year-old tea industry.
In October 2022, state Industries and Commerce Minister Bimal Bora chaired a meeting in Guwahati on the proposed draft ‘Tea Policy’ along with representatives of tea industry bodies and other relevant stakeholders including auctioneers and buyers.
Among the proposals discussed, the state government would consider providing assistance to exporters to send tea directly from Assam to foreign destinations.
ANI had earlier reported that a financial incentive of Rs 5 per kg is being considered, aimed at compensating the additional expenditure incurred on transportation and terminal handling charges of tea while being shipped out.
The draft policy has provisions for exemption of SGST (State Goods and Services Tax) for tea sold through the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre, one of the major tea trading centers in the world.
The draft tea policy states, “40 per cent SGST reimbursement will be provided to the buyers.”
For replacement of old and obsolete machinery and installation of additional machinery, the State intends to provide 25 per cent of the actual cost of plant and machinery, subject to a ceiling of Rs 50 lakh.
Besides this, setting up of new blending, packaging units, value addition units and immediate tea unit expansion or replacement/addition to existing units, incentive of 30 per cent of the actual cost subject to a ceiling of Rs 50 lakh were other proposals that came up for discussion. .
Setting up tea boutiques in major tourist destinations of Assam as well as in major cities of India is one of the other steps the state plans to improve the visibility of Assam tea.
To implement this, the capital investment up to 50 per cent with a limit of Rs 20 lakh for setting up such boutiques within the state is likely to be borne by the state government. For outside Assam, it may increase the maximum limit to Rs 40 lakh.
The state government is also planning to organize an annual tea festival to commemorate the International Tea Day, which is celebrated every year on May 21, for which an amount of Rs 50 lakh per year will be earmarked for the purpose. (ANI)
This report has been auto generated from ANI News Service. ThePrint is not responsible for its content.