Tripura Tea Development Corporation,TTDC, is working to become market leader in domestic market of the State as well as exporting Tripura Tea to Bangladesh
Enewstime Desk
Agartala, February 16, 2020: In pursuit of its rejuvenated marketing drive, Tripura Tea Development Corporation (TTDC) is eyeing to capture the domestic market of the State. The TTDC is working on twin strategies – becoming a market leader in the domestic market of the State as well as exporting Tripura Tea to Bangladesh. TTDC Chairman Santosh Saha said this while addressing a Press conference, convened to announce the schedule of the “Run for India tea” programme slated on February 19 next.
“A rally will be organized on February 19 next under the banner Run for India tea in order to promote Indian tea. Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath, Padma Shri Dipa Karmakar, her coach Bisweswar Nandi will flag off the rally from Bir Chandra Library Agartala”, Saha told reporters.
Tripura Tea eyeing Bangla Market
On the exports, Saha said, “ A number of letters have been exchanged in this regard. After, the meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh Prime Minister Seikh Hasina, where the issue has been discussed, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has personally written union minister of Industries and commerce Piyush Goyal for his intervention. Letters have been also exchanged in the industries and commerce ministry level in both the countries”.
Notably, Bangladesh imports a quantity of 65 lakh Kgs of tea per annum from Sri Lanka. Now, the Bangladesh government has shown interest to procure tea from India which can be seen as an opportunity for Tripura due its geographical proximity and longstanding camaraderie.
Apart from that Saha also said that there had been ample chances of exporting CTC tea in countries like Dubai, Kajkastan and Egypt as the countries were seeking to procure Indian tea for its good taste.
Scope for Tripura Tea in domestic market
Moreover, he also said that the TTDC is trying to increase domestic consumption of Tripura tea for fetching higher rates in the auction markets. “Earlier the Tripura tea failed to fetch the deserved rate because of less domestic consumption. Tea was mostly dependent on auction markets. The TTDC is trying to increase the domestic consumption of Tripura tea. If tea can get deserved prices in the domestic markets, it can get even higher prices in the auctions. The positive results had been seen recently when it fetched the highest price of Rs 225 in Kolkata” he added.
Speaking on the PDS system, he said, barring 7 Fair Price Shops in the city tea is available in all the ration shops. Some co-operatives and lamps have also shown interest to deal with Tripura tea. He also informed that Tripura successfully touched the mark of 4 lakh Kgs production every year. Along with him, Deputy Director Tea Board of India Joydeep Biswas and MD TTDC Nirmal Adhikari were also present in the press conference.
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