GUWAHATI, Sept 26 - The Guwahati Tea Auction centre has entered its 50th year and is in the process of celebrating its Golden Jubilee Year.
The auction centre has planned several events throughout the year to celebrate its golden jubilee.
In the run-up to the celebrations, an inaugural function is being organised tomorrow by the centre where in the main attraction would be a manual auction with the traditional outcry and hammer system.
The Guwahati Tea Auction Committee was formed on August 11, 1970, under the leadership of then Chief Minister late BP Chaliha.
The founder chairman of the committee was late Dharmananda Das, IAS, and late Dhanpati Sarma Roy was the Member Secretary.
Significant contributors for the formation of the committee were Padma Shree recipient late HP Barooah, late Mahadev Jalan, late SK Mehra, late Narendra Kumar and late NK Dutta.
RG Baruah was also the person to knock down the first ever lot of GTAC on September 25, 1970. The first sale that took place on the September 25, 1970 was conducted at the stadium guest house in Guwahati and was attended by many dignitaries from the government, tea industry as well as prominent citizens of the State, besides many buyers from across the country.
A fledgling GTAC sold 9.1 million kgs of tea in the year 1970, but has grown in size and stature over the years to become the largest auction centre of India and the second largest CTC auction centre in the world.
�With 195 million kgs of tea sold through the centre in 2018, we can only hope and try to keep growing at this pace,� the secretary of the centre said in a statement.
When the concept of e-Auction was first introduced in 2009, GTAC was the only auction centre who readily implemented it and successfully started its dust auctions through the e-auction portal from May 2009.
It is also the first auction centre to allow speciality teas in its catalogue since 2016, which have been creating records throughout.
In June 2019, GTAC opened The GTAC Tea Lounge in its premises to make available the best quality fresh garden teas to the public and also to promote the gardens packing their own teas.
