Tea is indigenous to India and is the most widely consumed beverage across the length and breadth of the nation and is the cheapest beverage in the world next only to water, Gogoi said while addressing a consultation of stakeholders of the tea industry with Union Minister of state for Industry and Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman here.
"The declaration of mango as the national fruit of India has not restricted the growth of apple or other fruits. Similarly, declaring tea as the national drink of our country will in no way affect the growth of other beverages and they will always have their own respective market shares," Gogoi, whose speech was read in absentia by Assam Industry Minister Pradyut Bordoloi, said.
He also urged initiatives to ensure that the Tea Board of India aggressively implement a strategy for promotion of Assam Tea abroad.
Gogoi pointed out that there was a need to modernise the packaging of tea in Assam as the state produces high quality of tea, but there was an acute dearth of packaging expertise in Assam which was essential to create demand in the export markets.
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The Centre must emphasis on these areas as these steps are essential if there is to be an overall increase in exports of tea from India, he said.
"Tea Board should have correspondingly invested its resources and focused on its activities in Assam. This, however, has not been the case," he said.
Gogoi pointed out that the primary reason for this was that the headquarters of all commodity boards like coffee, rubber, spices and tobacco were located in those states where the product was mainly grown, but the Tea Board was the only exception as its headquarters were not located in Assam.
"The Tea Board's head office should ideally be situated in Assam which will give an impetus to its activities in the most important tea growing region," he said.