Tea planters' body decries Greenpeace report

A tea planters' body today decried the recent report released by Greenpeace that Indian tea was unsafe as it contained harmful pesticides.
The Consultative Committee of Plantation Associations (CCPA), the apex body of tea planters in the country, said in a statement that the Greenpeace report was disappointing in the sense that it had not taken any cognisance of the efforts made by the Indian tea industry to ensure production of safe quality of tea manufactured under globally accepted best practices.
It said that the statutory body Tea Board had come out in strong defence of the Indian tea industry engaged in delivering a safe and quality-compliant product.

The association contended that the NGO had made sweeping generalisations to undermine the safety and quality of the beverage which was accepted by major tea consuming nations of the world.
Greenpeace in its report had allegedly found the presence of harmful pesticide residues including toxic dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane (DDT) in tea sold by leading brands across India.