GUWAHATI, April 18 - The Tea Board will conduct random checking of auction teas to check the compliance of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) norms. The decision was taken to ensure that the sellers are able to realise better price to minimise their loss occurred during the lockdown period.
In view of the COVID-19 outbreak, tea gardens and manufacturing units across the country have witnessed stoppage in production. However, as per direction of the government, production of made teas has started in almost all the tea-growing regions with certain restrictions and maintaining social distancing norms.
�Therefore, all producers� associations are hereby requested to encourage their seller members to manufacture quality teas or teas compliant to FSSAI norms so that the sellers are able to realise better price to minimise their loss occurred during the lockdown period,� a Tea Board circular said.
The teas failing to comply with the FSSAI parameters will not be allowed to be offered in the auctions depending on the extent of the violations by the producers.
Welcoming the decision, Guwahati Tea Auction Buyers� Association secretary Dinesh Bihani said it has been noticed in the past that poor quality tea was offered in auctions.
�It was difficult to sell those teas, and some fetched prices as low as Rs 50/55. Now, following the tea board move, all the manufacturers will make quality tea which will fetch remunerative prices,� Bihani told The Assam Tribune.
Auction at GTAC will resume on April 23.
�If the tea industry cannot maintain quality and reduce production of low quality tea the prices may not increase. This is a golden opportunity to make good teas which will fetch good prices and it is necessary for survival of tea industry,� Bihani added.
Last year, the GTAC sold 195 million kg of tea. The State�s production last year stood at 655 million kg.
Due to excess production of low quality teas, the auction prices were down in the 2019-20 season, causing difficulty in their trading.
Indian export may be hit this year, and as all restaurants, dhabas and tea stalls are closed for over a month due to the lockdown, tea consumption may also suffer.
