National

Tea Board to run campaigns for generic promotion

Guwahati: Though Assam and West Bengal are the two major tea producing States, their consumption is much lower than other parts of the country. The Tea Board will run campaigns for generic promotion of tea in order to encourage more consumption in these two States.

Tea Board’s Chairman Basudeb Banerjee, during an interaction session at the first business session of the ongoing India International Tea Convention (IITC), 2007, here on Friday on the theme “Indian Tea Panaroma,” said that per capita consumption of tea in Assam and West Bengal, was lower than the national average and there should be more generic promotion to increase domestic consumption, particularly in these two States.

Mr. Banerjee stressed on the need for synergising the campaign on generic promotion by the Tea Companies and the Tea Board to increase the domestic consumption. He said that India’s domestic consumption was less than Pakistan.

India accounts for 27 per cent global tea production with 956 million kg. Assam and West Bengal account for about 50 and 25 per cent of the country’s production respectively.

The Chairman, Tea Research Association , C.S. Bedi, in his presentation at the second business session on “Assam Tea: A Unique Proposition,” said if Darjeeling was the Champagne, then Assam could easily be termed as the best cognac of the tea world.

He said that Assam tea was gifted with the balance of all the attributes of a good tea, viz. colour, brightness, strength, flavour and briskness.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu