Date:11/01/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/01/11/stories/2007011107072100.htm

Business

Tea competition to be held in March

Staff Reporter

Tea Board and UPASI to hold the show

KOCHI: The third edition of the Golden Leaf India Awards: Southern Tea Competition will be held in March. The final tasting session will be held in Kochi on March 21, said N. Dharmaraj, convener of the organising committee of the competition, in a press release.

A seven-member international jury comprising prominent tea buyers from major tea importing countries and from leading Indian buying companies will evaluate the short-listed teas. This will be followed by the visit of the buyer tasters to some of the South Indian plantation districts in the form of reverse buyer visits, said the press release.

The competition is a joint venture of the Tea Board and the United Planters' Association of South India (UPASI) and was conducted twice earlier. The first was in September 2005 and the second in Dubai in 2006. The third edition of the competition is being organised to "sustain the peer group competition among the producers for excellence in quality and to sustain world awareness of the quality potential of South Indian teas," said the press release.