GUWAHATI, Jan 6 - The Union Government has made a gazette notification facilitating setting up of mini tea factories by the small tea growers individually or collectively.
The gazette notification, issued on January 4, has been viewed by the tea industry here as a major step to remove the long-standing grievances of the small tea growers concerning the due prices of the green leaves they produce.
The small tea growers have been complaining for the past several years that they have been deprived of the due prices of the green leaves they produce by the factory owners, as under the prevailing situation they don�t enjoy the rights to set up tea factories.
The gazette notification, issued by the Commerce Department of the Union Commerce Ministry, has made the required amendments to the�Tea (Manufacturing) Control Order�(TMCO), 2003�for the purpose.
It has brought up the concept of the �mini tea factory,� defining them as the factories �owned by a small grower, an association of small growers or a producer company and which sources all the required tea leaf from its own plantation for the purpose of manufacture of tea and having capacity to produce not more than five hundred kilograms of made tea per day.�
It has provided that �no objection certificate� would not be required to set up a mini tea factory. However, such factories� owners shall have to get themselves registered with the appropriate registering authorities under the TMCO.
Moreover, the owners of such factories will have to obtain a certificate under the TMCO to sale manufactured tea or to hold stock of such teas, says the gazette notification.
