COONOOR AUCTION -- 4 ::

My article in today's The New Indian Express -- Feb 1, 2015)::

SEVEN GRADES EXCEED Rs 200/KG IN COONOOR TEA AUCTION

Express News Service

Coonoor: Seven grades of Crush Tea Curl (CTC) tea from small-scale sector, popularly called ‘bought-leaf factories’, shot into high-price bracket of over ` 200 per kg at the fifth auction for 2015 conducted by Coonoor Tea Trade Association (CTTA).

Of them, Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings grade of Homedale Estate, auctioned by Global Tea Brokers, topped overall CTC market and leaf auctions when Mittal Tea Co bought it for ` 215.

The Red Dust grade of Darmona Tea Industry, auctioned by Paramount Tea Marketing, topped the Dust auctions at ` 207 and this was also the second highest price among CTC teas.

In the Leaf auction, Broken Pekoe of Darmona (` 206), Broken Pekoe of Homedale (` 204), Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings grade of Darmona (` 203) were the other grades which fetched over ` 200.

In the Dust auction, Pekoe Dust of Homedale Estate (` 206) and Super Red Dust of Darmona (` 205) were the other grades which fetched over ` 200.

“This is significant considering that the average price at this auction was only ` 79.35 per kg”, CTTA Chairman Ramesh Bhojarajan told Express on Saturday.

This photo I had taken earlier shows Prashant Menon (Homedale), Dinesh Raju (Darmona and Ramesh Bhojarajan (CTTA Chairman) 

and, this photo I had taken earlier shows Noor Mohammed (Paramount Tea Marketing) and Rajesh Gupta (Global Tea Brokers) tasting tea

COONOOR AUCTION -- 3 ::

FIVE GRADES CROSS RS 200/KG

Article in today's The New Indian Express by P S SUNDAR ::

This photo I had taken shows these three youth power in tea (l-r) Prashant Menon (Homedale), Dinesh Raju (Darmona and Ambukkal) and Ramesh Bhojarajan (CTTA Chairman).

PROMOTION -- 2 ::

                Some innovative strategies have been documented in this article published in Contemporary Tea Time Sept - Nov 2014::  P S SUNDAR

POLICY -- 2 ::

DEMONSTRATION FOR MINIMUM SUPPORT PRICE

My article in The New Indian Express today, Jan 22, 2015::  P S SUNDAR.

POLICY - 1 ::

TEA GROWERS URGE PM TO RE-CONSTITUTE TEA BOARD

BY P S SUNDAR

                    

              Tea growers have appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to re-constitute Tea Board and provide for electing the Chairman from the new members.

The term of the last Tea Board expired on March 31, 2014 but the new Board has not yet been constituted.  Likewise, the Board does not have a full-time Chairman for over a year now.

“Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has voiced her concern on Tea Board’s efficiency.   She has underlined the need to revamp the Board”, Samir Roy, President, National Federation of Small Tea Growers of India, Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, told me.

He had been a member of Tea Board for over 30 years.

Samir Roy

“Prime Minister Modi is showing direct concern on developing the tea industry.  Last month, at the meeting of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs which he chaired, a sum of Rs 1,425 crore, including Rs 200 crore for small-scale sector, was allotted to tea industry based on Commerce ministry’s proposal.   Tea Board should utilise this fund before March 31, 2017, but there is neither a properly constituted Board nor full-time Chairman.  So, whether this will benefit the industry is doubtful”, he noted.

“We have, therefore, urged Prime Minister to re-constitute the Board immediately.   We have also urged him to amend the Tea Act to provide for electing the Chairman among members and appoint full-time IAS officer as Deputy Chairman.  As per present practice, Chairman is an IAS officer while members elect a Vice Chairman”, Roy added.

Although every top official I had spoken to In the past few months had confirmed that that the re-constitution of the Board and appointment of full-time Chairman would happen soon, rumours are afloat that all Commodity Board would be revamped as Directorate and a political bigwig would be appointed as Chairman of all these Directorates put together. 

"Politicians already have representation on the Board in the form of MPs and if need be, their number can be increased.  The Chairman has to be elected from among the members and the need of the hour is a strong Board that gives leadership to all segments of the industry", Roy noted. 

PRODUCTION - 2 :: 

INDIA PRODUCED LOWER TEA IN 2014

BY P S SUNDAR

                      India’s tea production in 2014 is now estimated to be some 17 million kg (mkg) lower than 2013.

This was the first time in recent years that India’s production had fallen over a previous year. 

“Tea Board’s official data has come up to November 2014. Our compilation places India’s tea production in the 11 months at 1127.21 mkg against 1143.27 mkg during Jan-Nov 2013”, Rajesh Gupta, compiler of ‘Global Tea Digest 2014’ told me.

Assam continued to top the country’s tea table.   “Assam produced 570.59 mkg but that was as much as 30.69 mkg less than 2013.  West Bengal gained 14.22 mkg to rise to 309.30 mkg but here, Darjeeling produced just 8.40 mkg -- as much as 18.29 mkg less than Jan-Nov 2013.  Overall, North Indian production dropped by 15.80 mkg to dip to 903.55 mkg”, Rajesh Gupta, said.

“In the South, Tamil Nadu produced the highest volume of 157.25 mkg but that was 4.41 mkg lower than Jan-Nov 2013.   Kerala produced 3.01 mkg more to reach 60.16 mkg.   Overall, South India lost 0.26 mkg to produce 223.66 mkg”, he said.

Preliminary estimates show that December production was also less.   In Nilgiris, production was down by 5.8 per cent compared to December 2013.   While Coonoor and Kullakamby regions reported marginally low production, Kundah and Ooty zones suffered higher crop loss due to low temperature.

As of now, industry sources estimate production in 2014 at 1183 mkg against 1200 mkg in 2013. 

COONOOR AUCTION -- 2 ::

HAT-TRICK BY DARMONA TEA INDUSTRY AT COONOOR AUCTION

BY P S SUNDAR

                    Darmona Tea Industry, ISO-certified small-scale bought-leaf tea factory in Aravenu hamlet of Kotagiri taluk, which had placed Nilgiris tea sector on global high-price map, has done a hat-trick by topping the auctions of Coonoor Tea Trade Association (CTTA) in all the three auctions held in 2015.

Darmona dust crush-tear-curl (CTC) tea grades, auctioned by Paramount Tea marketing (SI) P Ltd.,  have been fetching the highest prices week after week since the auctions for 2015 opened on Jan 2.  In the first auction, Darmona tea topped at Rs 216 per kg when the overall average price at the auction was Rs 71.83.  In the second auction, it topped at Rs 219 (auction average: Rs 72.71) and in the third which ended on Friday, Darmona fetched Rs 217 (Rs 77.81). 

I took this photo of Dinesh Raju, Managing Director, Darmona, showing some packs of his high-price fetching teas, at Aravenu ::