AGARTALA, Jan 10 - Tea produced by the Tripura Tea Development Corporation (TTDC) was sold at a record price of Rs 225 per kg at a Kolkata auction.
It has bettered the previous best price of Rs 201 per kg fetched by TTDC�s orthodox tea at an auction in Guwahati.
�We have made the impossible possible. Getting Rs 225 per kg of CTC tea is a remarkable achievement for TTDC. It also brings cheers among tea workers,� said TTDC chairman Santosh Saha at a press conference here today.
TTDC owns three tea gardens � Brahmakunda, Kamalasagar and Machmerra. Of total 52 tea gardens in the State, as many as 13 gardens are managed by cooperatives. But the gardens owned by private owners contribute a whopping 70 per cent of the total tea produced in the State.
Saha said at the TTDC-owned Durgabari tea processing unit, production has increased substantially within a year. �In 2017, a total of 1.72 lakh kg tea was processed at the Durgabari tea processing unit, which went up to 2.98 lakh kg the following year. Production has almost doubled,� he said.
Buoyed by the success in tea distribution through PDS in the city�s fair price shops, the TTDC has now decided to expand its distribution network to Kamalpur and Udaipur subdivisions.
While the Halahali Cooperative Society was tasked to distribute TTDC tea through PDS, another cooperative society was roped in to sell finished tea of the corporation through rations shops in the Udaipur subdivision.
The TTDC chairman said it would create jobs for local youths. Currently, the TTDC supplies tea to 231 rations shops in the city. Saha added that the TTDC has decided to increase the daily wage of its garden workers by Rs 20.
�As many as 600 workers will benefit from by this decision. I appeal to other tea planters to hike the wages, keeping price rise in mind,� he said.
