Tripura set to get first tea auction centre

Agartala: The century-old tea industry in Tripura is set to get a shot in the arm, with the state government deciding to establish an auction centre to help fetch better prices of finished products, a senior official said on Wednesday.

At present, tea planters have to sell products at the Guwahati or Kolkata auction centre.

A NITI Aayog team, which visited the state recently, gave the green signal to set up the auction centre in West Tripura’s Durgabari Tea estate, the official said.

“Chief Minister Manik Saha, who held the first meeting of Tripura Institution for Transformation (TIFT) on Tuesday, revealed the decision of setting up a tea auction centre,” he said.

This will fulfil the long-pending demand of tea planters of the state, which produces 90-lakh kg tea annually, he said.

The Tripura Tea Development Corporation Ltd (TTDC) has welcomed the state government’s decision to set up the auction centre.

“It will help the tea platers to sell their products at a reasonable price,” TTDC chairman Samir Ghosh told PTI.

He said the TTDC will now press for subsidies in transportation and state GST to attract buyers from even outside the state.

“We have to provide some extra benefits to the tea buyers to bring them to the proposed auction centre,” Ghosh said.

Tripura has 60 tea estates out of which 42 are owned by private players, 13 operated by co-operative societies and the remaining belong to the TTDC.

Around 80,000 people are directly and indirectly associated with the tea industry in the northeastern state, officials said.

The tea produced in the state got its logo and brand – Tripureswari Tea – in 2018.