• PAGE ONE
• INDEX
• HOME

Tea Board warns trade against manipulation

P.S. Sundar

COONOOR Sept. 17

TEA Board has warned the trade against market manipulation and advised it to gain credibility.

``There are allegations from producers, particularly from the small scale sector that they do not get a fair deal at the auctions. Market manipulation by a section of the trade is alleged. No artificial hold should stay in the auctions. It is important that your auction system gains credibility,'' said Mr Vikram Kapur, Chief Regional Executive (CRE) of the Tea Board.

Delivering the chief guest address at the 8th annual General meeting of the Coonoor Tea Trade Association (CTTA) here on Monday, he said to overcome such complaints, the board had initiated a study on primary marketing by a reputed consultancy firm. ``O nce the report is received, we will look into the implementation of the various suggestions against auctions. Of course, the various sections of the industry would be consulted before deciding on action,'' he said.

Pointing out the fall in the offerings at the Coonoor auction centre, he asked the trade to seek out the reasons for this decline.

Dismissing imports as a cause for the price fall, Mr Kapur said around six million kgs of teas were imported last year, of which only a miniscule came from Sri Lanka. ``The landed cost of imported teas was around Rs 68 a kg. So, there were no import of sub-standard or cheap teas. However, we assure you that the Government would take all necessary steps to check on quality,'' he said.

The only way to face the future challenge would be to produce and trade in quality teas, he stressed. ``Producers from other countries are competitive enough to supply teas at prices cheaper than India. So, even if we ask for a ban on imports, we canno t force Russia to buy all its teas only from us.''

All the same, he agreed, that there was a need to go for alternate markets to Russia. ``The recent visit of the Russian delegation was disappointing. While it did not promise to give us the price, I am happy that our produces told the Russians that for t he price they offered, they could not expect a better quality,'' he said.

Mr Kapur, however, regretted that there was some adulteration in the market. ``The Tea Board has been taking all steps to stop adulteration. Now, more adulteration is taking place in the plains than in the Nilgiris. When we took quality assurance tests, there was no sample found want of standards. The tea auction centres must take all steps to remove adulterated teas from the market,'' he said.