Govt, plan panel weigh special tea fund

The commerce ministry and the Planning Commission is examining a special purpose tea fund which is to be set up for rejuvenation and replantation of bushes over a period of 15 years.

Basudeb Bandopadhyay, chairman, Tea Board, said today that the special fund would have a corpus of Rs 4,700 crore, which would be provided by all stakeholders in the industry.

He said the procedures were being formalised at the moment and the fund would be created within a month's time or so.

The tea industry had approached the board and commerce ministry for funds to overcome the problem of declining productivity due to bushes which had become more than 40 years old.

On price realisation, he said there was a crisis in low realisation which had become a matter of concern.

The price during the current year had fallen below the previous year's levels, Bandopadhyay said.

He said the price had marginally firmed up due to stoppage of production in the north Indian gardens. However, there had been much price recovery.

The Tea Board chairman said lower exports coupled with higher production has led to depressed prices in auctions.

During the period April to August, tea exports were 80 million kilogram.

The prime cause for the fall in exports was the loss of the Iraq market, he said.

To compensate, he said new export markets like Pakistan and Egypt were being explored.

The government had spent more than Rs 400 crore in the previous five years through the form of intervention to help the industry tackle the crisis which cropped up from time to time.

Consumption of the beverage had also remained stagnant during the current year.