GUWAHATI, Nov 11 � Setting at rest all speculation on the issue, the Tea Research Association (TRA) has endorsed the age-old practice of the Assam tea industry of selecting the fine leaf with its statement that fine leaf consists of only one leaf and a bud, two leaves and a bud and a single banjhi.
The TRA has also clarified that in case of three leaves and a bud, the top two leaves and a bud should be treated as fine leaf by breaking them from the shoot and the rest should be considered as coarse leaf.
North Eastern Tea Association (NETA) chairman Bidyananda Barkakoty had sought the opinion of the TRA on the matter through a letter to its Chairman DP Maheswari. Barkakoty also requested technical guidance from the TRA in this respect.
In his letter, Barkakoty called for standardizing the method of fine-leaf counting prior to the re-implementation of an August 6 Tea Board circular on the issue to avoid a conflict between the tea manufacturers and the green leaf growers.
In reply to Barkakoty's query as to whether the minimum quality standard of green leaf can be the same throughout the year, Maheswari said it is not possible to give a fixed recommendation on percentage of fine leaf as it will vary from season to season and also on requirement for manufacturing of different types of tea, etc.
Maheswari further said that developing a sensor-based machine to do fine leaf count is not the TRA priority right now.
However, Barkakoty told The Assam Tribune that the present methods for fine leaf counting are subjective and, therefore, they would approach the IIT, Guwahati or other scientific organisations to develop a small affordable sensor-based machine for counting fine leaf percentage of green tea leaf.
