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Friday, September 09, 2011

India signs peace pact with rebel group

Reported on channelnewsasia.com NEW DELHI: The Indian government on Saturday signed a pact with one of India's oldest rebel groups to end militant violence in the restive northeastern state of Assam and pave the way for peace talks. The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), the largest separatist outfit in Assam, is seeking an autonomous ethnic region the state, but within the Indian union. Under the agreement, signed by representatives of the national and Assam governments and ULFA, the guerrilla group vowed not to stage any attacks while the search for a political resolution to the dispute was underway. The government also promised not to take any military action against ULFA members. The accord came a month after ULFA, which has been fighting for a homeland for ethnic Assamese since 1979, set out its demands in the first formal peace talks with the government. The group announced a unilateral ceasefire in July. The agreement "is the harbinger for future talks," India's Home Affairs Joint Secretary for the northeast, Shambhu Singh, told reporters in New Delhi. In the past two decades, more than 10,000 people have lost their lives to the insurgency in Assam, a region known for its tea, timber and oil reserves. Under the agreement, members of the rebel group, which numbers to around 600, will be put in special camps. ULFA said, however, that it would not surrender its arms and ammunition. "Why should we? This is not a final agreement," a senior leader of the group, Sashadhar Choudhury, told reporters. "This is a gentleman's agreement. We will see how the parleys go forward." Public support for the ULFA has dwindled in recent years after a series of attacks in public places that resulted in heavy civilian casualties. The ULFA leadership used to operate out of Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, but the movement was severely weakened by a 2009 crackdown by the Bangladeshi authorities, under pressure from India. The lone hold-out to the peace process has been ULFA's military commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah, who is believed to be hiding with around 100 armed cadres somewhere along the Myanmar-China border.

Training institute needed for skill development

Reported in Food & Beverage News The North-Eastern Tea Association (NETA) has asked the state government to set up a training institute, in order to develop the skills of the tea labourers in Assam. “Shortage of manpower is going to be a major challenge for the tea industry,” Bidyananda Barkakoty, chairman, NETA, informed FnB News in a chat over telephone. Following several years of prolonged struggle, the state's tea industry had undergone dramatic changes from 2007, yet some challenges confined mostly to shortage of manpower still remained. Barkakoty said that the setting up of the HRD (Human Resource Development) institute and mechanisation of plantations could be a two pronged-strategy for providing solutions to the problems faced by the industry. About mechanisation of plantations, currently there are some existing machines which are made in Germany, Japan, China and other countries and India has a lot of scope for improvements in the technology of the existing machines based on plucking standard, work culture, field drains and height of bush. “We are seeking the help of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in this regard,” said Barkakoty and added that skill development at all levels was lagging in the industry. He then said that Assam being the largest producer and exporter of tea, needed a training institute for workers right from the grass-root level to the managerial executives to meet the challenges for a sustainable development of the tea industry. Barkakoty confirmed that the Association has urged the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) for the setting up of the HRD institute in the state as this would not only help improve the management with new techniques, but also develop new markets and contribute to the overall growth of the tea industry. Meanwhile, he also urged the Government of Assam to persuade the Centre to declare tea as a national drink as it had evolved not just as a product or commodity, but as a culture from ages. He was addressing the 15th biennial meeting of the NETA recently, in Golaghat, Assam. At the meeting, he suggested various ways to improve the tea industry and projected analysis on different areas such as the opportunities, strengths, weaknesses, strategic plans and support to bring in changes to the existing problems of the tea industry.

Assam Tea should be state drink and national drink

Darjeeling may have something to say about the latter. Reported in Business Standard, by Supratim Dey The tea industry of Assam, a state which is synonymous in the outside world with its tea, has asked the government to declare the beverage as the ‘National Drink’ of India. It also wants tea to be declared as the ‘State Drink’ of Assam. “In view of its glorious past and in anticipation of its bright future, we sincerely feel that there is a genuine case for tea to be declared as the ‘State Drink’ of Assam. The logical step forward would then be to persuade the government of India to declare tea as the ‘National Drink’ of India,” said Bidyananda Barkakoty, Chairman of North Eastern Tea Association (NETA). For India, which is the largest consumer of tea and the second largest producer of tea (till 2005 India was the largest producer), declaring tea will have an “integrating effect”, feels Barkakoty. India consumes more than 80 per cent of its domestic production and 20 per cent of the world’s production. NETA had yesterday submitted a memorandum to Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in support of its demand. In the memorandum, Barkakoty has put forth at least 33 reasons why tea should be declared as the ‘State Drink’ of Assam and the ‘National Drink’ of India. “If whiskey can be the national drink of Scotland, sugarcane juice the national drink of Pakistan, vodka the national drink of Russia, tequila the national drink of Mexico, why can’t tea be the national drink of India,” asked Barkakoty. Barkakoty feels that the tea industry in Assam, with its 180 years of glorious history, has already passed through many turbulent periods and is quite vulnerable to recession. Since the livelihood of millions of people is associated with the industry, it needs adequate support to protect it from being threatened. He feels that the proposed new status of this beverage would provide a major impetus to the brand building exercise of Indian tea. “Symbolism apart, the declaration will be a good idea for bolstering the marketing of Indian tea. Tea is now accepted as a health drink world over. This fact coupled with the ‘State Drink’ and ‘National Drink’ tag would also attract the large youth population of the country towards this health beverage,” said Barkakoty. Historically, Assam is the second commercial tea producing region after southern China. Southern China and Assam are the only two regions in the world with native tea plants. Assam produces more than 55 per cent of India’s total tea production and contributes 13 per cent of global tea production.

Urea shortage hits gardens - Uncertainty over tea production, export

Also in The Telegraph, by PULLOCK DUTTA Jorhat, Aug. 11: Shortage of fertilisers, especially urea, has hit the tea industry hard with the industry warning that unless supply is restored immediately, production would be affected this year. “Tea estates have not been able to apply urea in the second split and unless immediate supply is restored, tea production will be adversely affected and projected tea production and export targets cannot be met,” an Indian Tea Association communiqué said. Assam produces about 500 million kg of tea every year which is more than 50 per cent of the country’s total production. Urea is a must for the tea crop which is applied in three splits (phases): March-April, June-July and August-September. The Indian Tea Association (ITA) is in constant touch with the Union ministry of chemicals and fertilisers and the agricultural directorate of the Assam government in this regard. The shortage of one of the primary fertilisers for tea crop has been because of breakdowns of two units of the Brahmaputra Valley Fertilisers Corporation Ltd (BVFCL) — the only authorised supplier of the subsidised urea in the region. The ITA has also held a meeting with the BVFCL authorities recently in this regard. The BVFCL authorities were requested to make extra efforts to make the material available immediately. The BVFCL informed the ITA delegation that it was a routine for the BVFCL to shut down its units for maintenance every year in April for 15 days. This year, however, it had taken a considerable time to re-commission because of a major breakdown in both the units. To avert a similar crisis situation in the future, the tea industry should lift the material regularly latest by February/March each year and stock for the two major split applications — June-July and August-September, the ITA delegation was told. Sources in the tea industry said taking advantage of the shortage, various dealers were charging exorbitant prices for the material which is available in the black market. Till a couple of months back, urea was available in the market at Rs 5,640 per metric tonne but today the prices have soared to anything between Rs 8,000 and Rs 9,000. “We are buying urea at exorbitant rates and this has added to the cost of production manifold. It will be difficult for many gardens to buy fertilisers at this high price which will have an effect on production this year,” former chairman of the Assam Tea Planters’ Association (ATPA), Raj Barooah, said. A BVFCL official said that the central PSU would make enquiries regarding a few dealers charging higher prices for urea, and take necessary action including cancellation of dealership licence. He said that BVFCL had a commitment to supply the material to Manipur, Tripura, Bihar and Nepal apart from Assam. “We are trying to restore normal supply very shortly,” he said. Top

Clamour for 20% bonus - Tea union wants payment three weeks before Pujas

From The Telegraph, by WASIM RAHMAN Jorhat, Aug. 12: Clamour over Puja bonus has begun. The Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS), the state’s oldest and largest tea labourers’ body headquartered in Dibrugarh, has set the ball rolling with a letter to major tea planters’ associations, urging the industry to initiate the bonus payment process, paying at the maximum rate of 20 per cent. Union minister of state (independent charge) for DoNER and Dibrugarh MP Paban Singh Ghatowar is the president of the Sangha. In the early part of this decade, the bonus issue had reached a boiling point, leading to police firing on agitating labourers in Tinsukia district in 2002. But with the fortunes of the tea industry looking up during the past few years, bonus payments had gone smoothly. In his letter to the industry a few days back, ACMS general secretary Dileshwar Tanti requested that the “quantum of bonus” be announced and paid at least three weeks ahead of Durga Puja. He asked the tea estates to submit copies of their balance sheets and computation statements for the previous fiscal (2010-2011) to the Sangha’s central office in Dibrugarh by August 30. Taking the “hopes and aspirations” of the workers into consideration, the letter also urged the industry to declare and pay the bonus to the workers at one go rather than in instalments. Sangha sources said most of the time, the gardens did not comply with the request to submit balance sheets, which allowed “outside forces” to take advantage of the situation to fuel unrest among the labourers. Payment of bonus to industrial employees is mandatory under Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, which says that employees earning up to Rs 10,000 per month have to be paid bonus at a minimum rate of 8.33 per cent and maximum of 20 per cent, on the basis of the employers’ earnings in the previous fiscal. Tanti, a former MLA, told The Telegraph that a meeting between representatives of major tea companies, tea was scheduled to be held at the Sangha’s central office in Dibrugarh in the first week of September to discuss the bonus issue. This was being done to ensure that the process of bonus payment passes off smoothly and peacefully. He said since business in the last fiscal was “not bad”, they wanted the industry to pay maximum bonus. “We want the gardens to pay the bonus three weeks before Puja so that workers could get enough time to do their shopping,” Tanti added. According to industry sources, the matter should be sorted out amicably, as the industry is on a revival mode with tea prices going up. In the past two years, most of the estates and big companies, including MNCs, in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts, paid bonus at the rate of 20 per cent, while a majority of the state’s gardens paid 17 per cent. Assam Tea Planters’ Association additional secretary Anjan Kumar Bhuyan said the Sangha’s request had been intimated to the member gardens. Dhiraj Gowala, assistant general secretary of the influential Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association (ATTSA), too, has demanded 20 per cent bonus for the workers.

Assam to get Northeast's first integrated tea park

Reported in the Economic Times GUWAHATI: The first integrated tea park of the Northeast will come up at Chaygaon on the outskirts of Guwahati. Around Rs 23 crore will be invested in the project. The pre-feasibility report of the park is already prepared. Sources in Assam Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) told ET: "We have identified 200 bighas of land for the tea park. We have already purchased and acquired 60 bighas. Process is on for procuring the remaining." Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi, during his meeting with deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, said that though tea is the biggest industry in Assam there was not a single integrated tea park in the state, which could cater to the needs of the industry. "The AIDC has taken steps to set up the tea park, which will create worldclass infrastructure for processing, warehousing, blending and packaging on the industry cluster concept. Tea export from the state will increase substantially with the operation of the park," the sources added. Based on the techno-economic feasibility report, AIDC has re-casted the project cost from Rs 39.67 crore to Rs 23.40 crore. The fund is expected to be generated from the leased out space and assistance to the state for developing export infrastructure and allied activities. Currently, Guwahati has around 14 lakh square feet of warehousing facilities scattered in different locations. Assam's tea production was estimated at 480.2 million kg (mkg) last year, which was down by 19.7 mkg compared to the previous year's production of 499.9 mkg. Tea plantation is expanding fast in non-traditional areas and the park is expected to assist the growers in the non-traditional areas. While Assam and Tripura are traditional tea-growing states, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Sikkim constitute the non-traditional areas. The Northeastern region accounts for 55% of the area under tea and 53% of the production. Tripura produces 7.5 mkg annually. The non-traditional areas together produce 2.98 mkg annually.

Reverse migration - Assam tea workers leaving the region

Reported in several online newspapers. This story from The Hindu, by Sushanta Talukdar About 300 tea garden workers of an estate in Assam have left their jobs and gone back, along with their families, to their ancestral places in Telangana in search of greener pastures. Captains of the 180-year-old tea industry in the State are worried that such reverse migration is likely to aggravate the problem of shortage of labour, which the industry has started experiencing. Chariman of North Eastern Tea Association (NETA) Bidyananda Barkakoty revealed this trend during his speech at the 15{+t}{+h} biennial General Meeting of the association held in the upper Assam town of Golaghat on Saturday. “Shortage of labour is going to be a major challenge for the tea industry. We have already started to feel the pinch. Absenteeism has already been an area of concern. We have taken up this issue with Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS) at several meetings. Absenteeism and shortage of labour, though inter-related, are two different issues. Shortages in many gardens are felt even without absenteeism. Reverse migration is taking place in some areas. About 300 families have left the tea estate and gone back to Telangana,” said Mr. Barkakoty, who has been re-elected NETA chairman for 2011-2013. Mr. Barkakoty, however, declined to divulge the name of the tea estate, but confirmed that migration of tea garden workers from Assam to Kerala had also been taking place. To overcome the problem of shortage of manpower and absenteeism, the NETA chairman stressed the need to adopt a multi-pronged approach of mechanisation and setting up a Human Resource Development (HRD) institute. “The changing lifestyle and modern living standards require an overhaul of the traditional management styles of this vital industry. Hence, the Assam tea industry needs a skills development and training institute for the grass-root worker and the managerial level executives to meet the challenges in these aspects and move forward with systematic analysis and formulation of strategies for sustained development,” he added. The NETA also urged the Assam government to declare tea as the “State Drink of Assam” and also to persuade the Centre to declare tea as the National Drink of India. Tea is the National Drink of Britain and China. The Assam tea industry employs about 5 lakh permanent workers and 5 lakh seasonal workers. Another 10 lakh people are dependent on the industry, be it employment or services. Assam produces more than 51 per cent of India's tea and contributes 13 per cent of global tea production. The total turnover of Assam tea industry is 5,000 crore. After the annexation of Assam from Burma (Myanmar), the British colonial administration started tea plantations on a large scale in the region. The first tea committee was formed in 1834, and the first tea garden was established in 1837. By 1900, there were 804 tea gardens. The industry soon began facing a shortage of labourers. With the native people of Assam engaged in independent farming, a labour class seeking wage employment on a regular basis was not available locally. It, therefore, became imperative for the planters to import labourers from outside the State. The Tea Districts Labour Association, constituted under the Tea District Emigrant Labour Act, 1932, started recruiting labour from six labour-surplus provinces — Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Central Provinces, United Provinces and Madras. The first batch of tea garden labourers were recruited from the Chotanagpur division of Bihar by the Assam Company in 1841. The industry continued to import labourers until 1960.

Assam need to protect Assam Tea

Assam needs to protect Assam tea the same way Cornwall protects its pasties and Parma it's ham. From The Assam Tribune Online, by a staff reporter State lacks awareness on GI Registry Staff Reporter GUWAHATI, July 28 – NE region has the highest number of potential geographical indication (GI) items like handicraft, agricultural and forest products, mineral, etc. But the fact remains that the region is yet to file a significant number of applications with the GI Registry of the country to get its right over these items protected. This is the observation made by Deputy Registrar of Trade Marks and Geographical Indications of the country GL Verma. The Deputy Registrar is in the city on the eve of a one-day seminar-cum-workshop on authorised users of geographical indications. The function is organized by the Geographical Indications Registry of the Union Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion. The GI Registry has defined the geographical indications of goods “as that aspect of industrial property which refers to the geographical indication referring to a country or to a place situated therein as being the country or place of origin of that product…” India, as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration & Protection) Act, 1999, which came into force with effect from September 15, 2003. Verma said that Karnataka has filed maximum number of applications and got nine of its items registered with the GI Registry and other three items of this South Indian State are under process of being registered. It needs mention here that Assam has got two of its items – muga silk and Assam tea – registered with the GI Registry. But awareness on the need to register the users with the GI Registry is seemed to be absent in the State, particularly in matters of muga silk. India has, according to a survey, over 3,000 potential GIs, which need to be protected. Till now, only 238 applications have been filed before the authorities for the purpose of registering equal number of items, and, of them, 153 have so far been registered, said Verma. Applications for registering the potential GIs should be filed with the GI authorities and the GI authorities have already furnished the details of the applications in their website: ipindia.nic.in On the ownership of the GI items, the Deputy Registrar said that all such items belong to the community and people of particular localities concerned. Some authorities like the State Government, associations like the producers’ guilds, with support from the universities and govt organisations, may come forward for getting such items registered with the GI Registry. The GI Act, 199 of the country aims at registering and providing a legal framework to protect geographical indications of the country, groups and localities, which have special characteristics and quality products.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Assam tea in new Jo Malone fragrance

Ok, a bit off the subject of the blog, but I just had to report on this. It may even be a fragrance that does not set off my hayfever. Unfortunately I have so much perfume already I cannot justify buying any more.

Reported in the Bangkok Post.

It's tea time

Published: 9/07/2011 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Muse

It's such an irony that during the course of Jo Malone's 17 years in perfumery, the British perfume house has teased with the diverse cultures from all over the world _ the passionate rhythm of Latin music for Blue Agava & Cacao, the exotic beauty of Thai cuisine for Sweet Lime & Cedar or the Japanese Kohdo ceremony for the two colognes in Kohdo Wood collection _ before it finally goes back to the true tradition that the Brits are most associated with in the world: Tea drinking.

So, it's not surprising that the Jo Malone house finally visits the quintessential British tradition for its lastest summer fragrance collection: Tea Fragrance Blends. The five scents are Assam & Grapefruit, Earl Grey & Cucumber, Fresh Mint leaf, Sweet Lemon and Sweet Milk. Created by master perfumer Christine Nagel, the collection attempts to re-interpret classic rituals and capture the essence of such authentic practice into Jo Malone's olfactory signature.

In reality, unlike many previous Jo Malone's scents, the Tea Fragrance Blends take a more literal approach towards the scent that lends its name and inspiration to the cologne. You have Earl Grey & Cucumber that smells distinctly like Earl Grey, and it's by far the scent with strongest staying power in this collection, with the vanilla and musk in the base note ensuring the warm scent reminiscent of the tea.

Those preferring a brighter, more invigorating fragrance that is similar to morning tea could check out Assam & Grapefruit _ a scent that starts off pretty refreshing with the dashing shot of fruity odour, before fading down into the bold scent of Assam tea.

Fresh Mint Leaf completes the main all-day tea ceremony collection as the representation of evening blend, with a strong, spiky mint scent _ more mint compared to Jo Malone's jasmine-y, highly floral White Jasmine & Mint.

Sweet Lemon and Sweet Milk complete the collection the way sugar, lemon and milk complete our tea time. Whereas Sweet Milk is nothing but literal _ transpiring a scent that is milky and sweet, and is nearly impossible to be worn on its own. Sweet Lemon is a fruity twist that can both be layered on any of the scents in the collection or even worn on its own.

As a final thought, the Tea Fragrance Blends is one of Jo Malone's most straightforward interpretations of its source of inspiration, resulting in scents that are true to its name, rather than a new, distinctive creation _ hence the need to master the art of fragrance combination to achieve a more customised scent of your own, unless you just love tea so much and prefer to have the characteristically tea-like odour with you.

SAMILA WENIN

Demand for better conditions in Assam

This was reported widely, but see the link below from The Telegraph, by Pullock Dutta

Tea garden asked to ‘pay up’
- Karbi outfit orders closure
PULLOCK DUTTA
A section of the Hatikhuli tea estate. Telegraph picture

Jorhat, July 12: Activities at Hatikhuli tea estate were disrupted today, with the garden employees refusing to work, following a threat from the Karbi People’s Liberation Tiger.

The tea estate, one of Asia’s largest organic tea plantations, belongs to Amalgamated Plantations Private Ltd, formerly Tata Tea.

The militant outfit has ordered the closure of the tea estate until the management comes to the negotiating table or pays up the money that the Karbi outfit has demanded.

The outfit had abducted a labour sardar, Bogai Karmakar, of the tea estate last Thursday to put pressure on the management to pay up.

However, Karmakar was released yesterday when the labour force, led by the Assam Tea Tribes Students Association, threatened to carry out attacks on Karbi villagers if he was not released.

The labourers also blocked National Highway 37 for several hours on Sunday.

A caller, who identified himself as Nilip Ingti, a leader of the Karbi outfit, told a few labourers of the tea estate last evening that Karmakar was released not because of the outfit’s fear of the garden labourers.

He said Karmakar was released because it did not want any confrontation with the tea labour community.

“We have nothing against the tea community and as such we are releasing Karmakar. But the labourers of the tea estate must ensure that they should cease work from tomorrow until the management pays up”.

The caller threatened capital punishment to anyone trying to oppose the diktat.

Anit Gaur, the assistant secretary of the Bokakhat unit of the tea tribe association, said the labourers have no option but to cease work, as they cannot risk their lives.

“We have informed the garden management to settle the issue with the militants and till then, the labourers have decided not to work,” said Gaur, who hails from Hatikhuli tea estate.

He said the labourers have also demanded the payment of daily wages from the management since it was not their fault that they could not work.

Golaghat deputy commissioner N.M. Hussain said he has assured the labourers of security and there should be no fear from the militants.

“We have already posted a police picket in the tea estate,” he said.

The deputy commissioner, however, said it would not be an easy task to provide security to the garden labourers all the time.

Located along the Golaghat-Karbi Anglong border near Kaziranga National Park, a large portion of the garden falls in Karbi Anglong district.

He added that there was no information about the militants demanding money from the garden management.

Repeated attempts to contact the garden officials failed.

Sources said the labourers would be holding a meeting with the management for a solution to the problem.

The Karbi outfit has gone on an extortion spree, targeting tea gardens in the Nagaon-Karbi Anglong border areas to raise funds to purchase arms.

This came to light during a law and order review meeting of Karbi Anglong and Golaghat district police.

“We have instructed all tea garden officers not to move outside the gardens at odd hours. All possible measures to ensure security have been taken,” a police official said.

The outfit’s general secretary, Ingti, told reporters that these gardens would not be allowed to continue their business.

The outfit has also instructed the Karbi and other indigenous workers serving in the gardens to leave work immediately.

The Karbi Anglong police source said the outfit’s threat is nothing but a part of its planned extortion drive.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SARAT SARMA IN NAGAON

Thursday, July 07, 2011

Lodges created to increase tourism

This by a staff reporter from The Telegraph

Tea bungalow-lodges beckon tourists
A STAFF REPORTER

Jorhat, June 22: The Assam government-owned Assam Tea Corporation Limited, in a bid to increase its revenue, will convert at least eight bungalows in four tea estates into tourist lodges.

The ATCL has 15 gardens and most of these are in Upper Assam.

Disclosing this to The Telegraph, industry minister Pradyut Bordoloi said the ATCL has to diversify its business and converting these British-era bungalows into tourists lodges has the scope to earn more revenue for the company.

The eight bungalows have been identified at Cinnamara, Soycotta and Murmuria and Rungamatty tea estates. While the bungalow at Rungamatty is almost ready with renovation completed, work on the other seven bungalows will be carried out soon.

Bordoloi had visited the Rungamatty tea estate yesterday to oversee the ongoing renovation on the bungalow.

Although the ATCL had planned to take into tea tourism venture by converting tea gardens into resorts way back in 2005, things did not work out because of paucity of funds. In fact, a bungalow in Cinnamara tea estate, the first tea estate to have been owned by an Assamese, Maniram Dewan, was prepared for tourists but work stopped midway.

“The ATCL is limping back to its good old days and in another few years we expect the company to make profit again,” Bordoloi said.

He said several initiatives like re-plantation of tea bushes and modernisation of factories have been done in recent times. A senior ATCL official said most of these bungalows were lying unused for several years now and few of them were almost in ruins.

“The maintenance cost of these bungalows is huge and they remained unused after being vacated by the tea executives,” the official said.

He said tour operators would be contacted as soon as these bungalows were ready for tourists.

The official said there were plans to convert all the 15 tea estates of the company into resorts and the colonial-style bungalows into star-category resorts. “Many tourists from the different parts of the country and abroad have a fascination for tea gardens and we want to cash in on this. Spending few nights amid lush green tea estates will no doubt be a great experience for tourists.”

The official said the tourists would also get an opportunity to have a first-hand experience of the tea-making process. He said the bungalows would not only serve as tourist resorts but also to company executives and businessmen on official visits.

“With several big companies setting up branches in small towns like Jorhat, Nagaon and Golaghat, business executives keep travelling to these places. These bungalows will provide them an ideal location to spend a night far away from the hustle and bustle of the urban setting,” the ATCL official said.

Four murdered in Assam

It seems the family were accused of witchcraft so the "witch hunters" could rape the mother and daughter.

See the full story in Hindustan Times, by Rahul Karmaker

A mother and a daughter were conveniently labeled witches in order to be raped and killed on Tuesday. The arrested ‘witch-hunters’ confessed this on Thursday. The police in north-central Assam’s Sonitpur district had on Tuesday found four bodies in a ditch in Monabarie Tea Estate, Asia’s
largest. The bodies – of Binanda Gaur, 46, his wife Karishma Gaur, 36, daughter Naina, 15, and a neighbour Manglu Mour, 14 – bore multiple injury marks and the faces were burnt by acid.

The police suspected it to be a case of witch-hunting, fairly prevalent across tea plantations. But the arrest of six of the seven ‘witch-hunters’ Thursday morning revealed there was a system to the madness.

“We recovered some instruments used in the killing, but it was not a case of witch-hunting,” said Sonitpur district police chief AP Tiwari.

Tiku Orang, one of those arrested, admitted they were instigated by one Surat Modi to accuse Binanda Gaur and his family members of practicing witchcraft that caused sickness among plantation workers. But the real motive was the lust for Binanda’s wife and daughter.

The mother and daughter were dragged out to the ditch at midnight, raped and killed. Gaur and teenager Mour had been killed earlier.

Black magic, witchcraft and superstitious beliefs have been part of tribal customs in Assam and other northeastern states. According to a conservative estimate, some 150 people have been killed in the past five years for allegedly practicing witchcraft in Assam.

In a bid to check this practice, the Assam police had launched Project Prahari entailing community policing and awareness drives. Officials involved with the project said women often fall victims of witch-hunt owing to property disputes. "Sexual assault appears to be a new phenomenon," said a senior police officer.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Sabha sets sights on tea community - Six garden units opened

Great developments in the Assamese tea community reported in The Telegraph, by a staff reporter.

Jorhat, May 30: The Asam Sahitya Sabha has begun an exercise in building a greater Assam by integrating the tea community with the literary scenario of the state.

The assistant general secretary of the Sabha, Debojit Bora, said till today the community had by and large been ignored by the Sabha, but a scheme had been launched this month to create 75 Sabha units in tea gardens across the state by 2013 and set up a research facility at Dibrugarh that would study the community’s culture and language.

“Till today the tea community has been by and large ignored by the Sabha but when we speak about Assam, we cannot do without the assimilation of this community which is said to be the largest, population wise, among all the other communities,” Bora said.

Bora said Sabha president Rong Bong Terang and its secretary Parmananda Rajbongshi had chalked out the proposal for bringing in the tea community within the greater Assam fold.

In Dibrugarh, construction of a research centre named Rameswar Lal Saharia Sangath Bhawan is under way on the premises of Dibrugarh branch of the Sabha to study all aspects of the community’s culture, food habits, language and festivals.

The Sabha has already made a beginning by setting up six tea garden units in Jorhat district, the first on May 12 at Hoolongoorie tea estate. The other tea garden units are at Teok tea estate, Kakojan, Meleng, Selenghat and Cinnamara.

The one at Cinnamara was opened on May 28.

Convener of the Asam Sahitya Sabha Tea Garden sub-committee, Ashwini Tasa, said other districts would soon be taken up during his two-year tenure and one Sabha unit would be set up to cater to five to 10 gardens covering a population of 5,000.

“Although we came from different parts of India more than 150 years ago, we identify ourselves today as Assamese despite speaking a different language which is a mixture of many languages,” Tasa said.

Tasa pointed out that as people had migrated from Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, it would be next to impossible to evolve a common grammar and language. Tasa said the community comprising many indigenous people and sub-tribes, also lacked an individual with grasp of all these languages put together.

“We have managed to evolve a common language known as Sadri or Sadhani but still there are too many differences which have cropped up while trying to codify this,” he said.

Tasa said he had appealed to the tea community at large to assimilate with the greater Assamese society and the best way to do so was by accepting and learning the Assamese language.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Assam to adopt Kenyan model of regulating tea processing units to ensure quality

The Economic Times of India, 02 June, Bikash, Singh, ET Bureau

GUWAHATI: India's largest tea producer, Assam, will adopt Kenyan model of regulating tea processing units to ensure quality. The state government will regulate the opening of bought leaf factories (BLF) in the state.

The government has put on hold issue of fresh registration of BLFs for the last three years in view of the mushrooming of BLFs. The state government in consultation with Tea Board and tea planters' bodies has come up with a new set of guidelines for opening BLFs and stand alone factories. Hundreds of applications are pending for BLFs.

According to guidelines, the availability of green leaf per BLF should be around 25 lakh kg annually. The government is now armed with production database of green leaf in each tea producing districts.

Tea Board to assist small growers set up tea processing unit

From Economic Times of India, 1 June, ET Bureau

KOLKATA: In a bid to promote small tea-growers of India, the Tea Board has decided to assist a group from West Bengal in setting up the country's first tea processing unit by small tea-growers.

The Panbari Small Tea-Growers Society of Assam, a self-help group, which was formed a few years ago, in Panbari village, has decided to go ahead with setting up of a tea processing factory in the village for which it acquired two hectares of land and pooled an amount of Rs 65 lakh. The board is assisting these growers and one of the nationalised banks has decided to provide loans.

A senior official in the Tea Board confirmed that the proposal has been pending for a long time and it is only now being implemented because of the initiative by Panbari tea-growers. "The small tea growers in the tea growing regions of north India have become a force to reckon with," the official added.

Assam Tea used in winning Scottish chocolate

Wonder what Grandad Blake would make of this use of Assam tea.

From Scotland of Food and Drink Friday 27 May, from Visit Scotland.

The Highland Chocolatier was announced as the recipient of VisitScotland’s Food Tourism Award at last night's Scotland Food & Drink Excellence Awards in Dunblane.

Based in Grandtully in Perthshire, The Highland Chocolatier is a chocolate maker with a dedicated chocolate exhibition.

The business was praised for its continuous growth over the past five years and its innovative expansion to provide a well rounded and year round visitor experience. Above all, the judges were impressed by the obvious passion and quality of the chocolate produced.

Owner Iain Burnett said: "It is extremely rewarding, not just for me but for our entire team in Grandtully, to be recognised by such a prestigious and respected organisation as Scotland Food & Drink.

"Our concept is unique, not only in Scotland but in the UK and although it is tough in such an unsteady financial climate, we are very pleased to be able to fulfil our dreams and win awards whilst we are at it too!"

Representing the diversity of applications for the award, the two other finalists were Waterfront Bar and Seafood Restaurant from Argyll, and Craigie’s (farm delicatessen and cafe) from West Lothian.

The awards were announced at a ceremony for the Scotland Food & Drink Excellence Awards at the Doubletree by Hilton Dunblane Hydro Hotel, where guests enjoyed a special menu designed by renowned Scottish chef, Nick Nairn.

Presenting the award, Riddell Graham, director of Partnerships at VisitScotland, said: "Food and drink is integral to the experience of visitors to Scotland and these awards have been a wonderful opportunity to build on Scotland’s Year of Food & Drink and our EatScotland quality assurance scheme by highlighting some of Scotland’s food heroes.

"It’s been great to see so many quality food and drink producers welcoming visitors in such enthusiastic and imaginative ways."

Scotland’s Year of Food and Drink runs up to the end of May 2011 and VisitScotland sponsors the Food Tourism award in recognition of the importance that food and drink plays in supporting tourism.

Figures show that £1 in every £5 spent by a visitor in Scotland is on food and drink-related activity, equating to more than £500 million for UK visitors alone. In March a survey (HPI Brand Tracker survey) showed that, between October and December 2010, there was a 6.5 per cent surge in the number of people who agreed that "Scotland is a country of great food and drink experiences".

To enter the award, businesses needed to be a quality Scottish food or drink business with authenticity, quality and passion at the centre of their product, as well as emphasising their visitor’s experience.

In selecting the three short-listed finalists, the judges were delighted to see the range of food and drink visitor experiences across the length and breadth of Scotland and were impressed with the level of sophistication and excellence in food and drink provision and visitor experience, particularly across rural Scotland.

Earlier this month, The Highland Chocolatier swept the board at the Academy of Chocolate Awards in London with its Velvet Truffles awarded an exceptional two Gold, two Silver and one Bronze for Best Truffle and Best Filled Chocolate categories.

The winning recipes included the pure Mild and Dark varieties of the Velvet Truffle, and infusions with Assam Tea & Green Cardamom, Crushed Raspberries & Black Pepper, and White Lime & Chilli.

Tea now grown in England

I could not believe it when I read this article, but suppose I should not be surprised after all we now grow vines.

From The Independent, Thursday 26 May, Anthea Gerrie

For all the tea in China, it seems we could have been growing our own for the past 200 years. Deep in Cornwall, a descendant of Earl Grey is proving you don't need Himalayan slopes or a sub-tropical climate to grow tea bushes producing leaves good enough for Britain's top tea tables, and in plentiful enough quantities to export.

That's export as in to China, Japan and other tea-growing countries. The Tregothnan estate, once mocked for its quirky little experiments with camellia sinensis – the tea bush – is now producing and harvesting more than 10 tons a year of tea that the experts consider fine, fragrant and worth a pretty penny.

"We consider it a miracle tea," says Nobu Kitayama, who distributes Tregothnan to high-class department stores and five-star hotels throughout Japan. Expat Joyce Cardew of Tokyo explains why she's happy to pay way over the odds for a tea that comes all the way from Britain.

"They are nurturing and preserving wonderful old plants originally raised in Japan, and I love that feeling of bringing the tea back to its original home," she explains. Sentimentality also plays a big part in boosting sales. "We've had Tregothnan on the menu for five years because we were really keen to showcase it as a British product," says Glenn Piper, the manager of Claridge's tea room. "Visitors love the idea that the afternoon tea they associate with England can include a homegrown brew."

As well as the commercial crop grown in Cornwall, there are a handful of tea bushes thriving in Aberdeenshire, and reported pockets in Dorset and Wales. So why have we spent centuries propping up the economies of China, India and Kenya rather than trying to cultivate our favourite drink?

"It was always considered it couldn't be done here – that's why the East India Company first got involved with smuggling tea from China to Darjeeling and Assam," explains horticulturist Philip McMillan Browse, who helped to create The Eden Project.

But this pessimism was misplaced. "The British also thought they couldn't grow any kind of camellias outdoors after they first brought them back from the East," he adds. "It took them 50 years to realise they could, after raising them for 50 years in glasshouses." It was the hundreds of camellias and magnolias growing happily in the wild at Tregothnan, whose owners are descended from Britain's most passionate collectors of exotic plants, which sparked their audacious investment in tea less than a decade ago.

"When I came here as head gardener in 1996, Lord and Lady Falmouth were wondering what they could do here which would tie in with the history, pay for the six full-time gardeners and last for at least 500 years," says Jonathon Jones, who is Tregothnan Tea in every aspect now, from the growing to the marketing of the lucrative crop.

"Although tea seemed unlikely because no one had done it in England before – and you'd think surely if they could, they would – it came to mind when I saw how many plants we had here like magnolia campbellii from Darjeeling, where the champagne of teas is grown," he adds. "The fact those plants were doing better here than in their native habitat was one of the deciding factors."

He confesses that an initial test planting was a disaster – "a gale of wind blew it all into the deer park" – but in 2001, he produced a tiny batch. "Only about 50 grams, but it proved the point," he says. "If there was any tea at all, we could scale it up."

The gardener became an international marketeer after unveiling his first large-scale crop at the International Tea Expo in Kenya in 2004. "Twinings offered to buy our entire production, but we realised there was more value in marketing it ourselves under the Tregothnan brand," he explains. "It's the world's only English tea, produced in the country that made afternoon tea famous."

However, without deep pockets, the Cornish tea crop might never have acquired more than curiosity value. Tregothnan is now turning over £1.1m worth of tea per year, but it has taken a £2.6m investment and a patient wait of five years from planting to harvesting the first crop.

Purchasers with deep pockets were also needed to help to build the brand, and even in a recession, they have fallen over themselves to become purveyors of true English tea. Fortnum & Mason, which has exclusive rights to Tregothnan's single-estate tea, sells it for a staggering £1,500 per kilogram.

"If you want to drink it as part of your afternoon tea in our tea room, it will cost you an extra £20 per person," says the store's tea buyer, Darren Williams. But he says there is no shortage of takers, especially from abroad. "The Japanese absolutely love it, both to drink in and take away, and we had a Russian customer who bought seven kilos and asked us to repack it into dozens of 100-gram gift packs," he says. "There are plenty of British tea connoisseurs too who just want to taste something different. It may be pricey, but it totally ties in with our ethos of sourcing the best British products."

But Tregothnan is not just for connoisseurs. Plain old garden centres sell its tea blends too, such as Afternoon blend, which is mixed with about 12 per cent of the imported Darjeeling these native leaves resemble, to guarantee consistency of taste. Also available are Earl Grey, flavoured with bergamot, and the Classic, mixed with Assam to make a more tannic breakfast blend.

It will cost you 18p a cup to drink homegrown – about 10 times the cost of a bog-standard tea bag – but Jones asks: "Why should we be expecting to pay less than 2p a cup for our national beverage?"

More and more tea lovers are agreeing with that sentiment as the cuppa drifts slowly upmarket. New research from Mintel shows the size of the premium sector is growing, even though builder's tea is on the decline, and specialist importers are enjoying dizzying business. "We expect to turn over £5m this year," says David Hepburn of Jing, which sells through mail order and to Britain's top hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants, and which has enjoyed a quantum leap in sales in the past five years. "We drink 165 million cups of tea a day in the UK, and huge numbers of people are experimenting with new teas – pu-erh, or flowering varieties, for example," he says. "It's like the coffee revolution, with people going to suppliers who roast and grind their own rare beans. The same thing is happening in tea, with a growing interest in provenance."

If the chic members' club Morton's is to be believed, tea is actually starting to replace coffee. "A few years ago, we would mostly serve coffee at breakfast, but now people realise they need more than just a quick fix of caffeine," says its restaurant manager, Nicolas Vallon. "People are becoming conscious of the fact that leading busy lifestyles can take its toll on your body so try and take small measures to protect their immune systems – like drinking good tea, which is known for its health properties."

The effect is filtering down to the supermarkets. Polly Astbury, tea buyer for Waitrose, reports: "Premium tea is showing growth, with traditional afternoon teas such as Darjeeling and Earl Grey up 12 per cent year on year." But Tregothnan will never be a supermarket brand, says Jones. He encourages visitors to come to the estate for a "bush to cup" experience at its tea room on the Fal. If Earl Grey could be there himself, looking up at the 20 acres of tea bushes stretching into the distance, he would surely be bursting with pride that his descendants had brought his favourite brew home to Britain.

The newest brews

Pu-erh, which Alice Waters, America's queen of foodies, says she's never without in her home, is the "coffee" of teas: strong, macho and addictive, with a high caffeine content. The smoky taste comes from fermentation. Buy Numi's in a chocolate-bar-style brick from which you break off one cube at a time.

Flowering teas were created to infuse the cuppa with some theatre. Flowers that grow beside the leaves in the wild are wrapped into the tea, opening up gorgeously in the pot to reveal a bloom. Get these from Jing (www.jingtea.com) with a glass teapot, which helps you to enjoy the show.

Matcha looks like an unlikely gourmet item: bright-green powder you whisk into hot water to make a brew as fast as a cup of instant coffee. Nevertheless, the Japanese consider it the queen of teas, and it has great health-giving properties. Loose from Teapigs (www.teapigs.co.uk).

Chocolate tea is just that: an amalgam of a strong, black tea with cocoa beans. Numi makes a chocolate pu-erh, while Teapigs' chocolate-flake tea is based on Assam.

What's in your teapot?

All tea is defined as an infusion of the dried leaves of the camellia sinensis plant in water, but how it is processed after picking dictates whether it is categorised as black, green or white.

White tea – considered by connoisseurs to be the most delicate – is merely steamed and dried.

Green tea is withered before it is steamed, fired or pan-fried. It is then rolled and dried.

Black tea is subjected to the final step of oxidising or fermenting before firing. This is the classic British brew and most likely to originate in India or Africa.

Oolong tea, popular in China and with tea connoisseurs, has a delicate taste that comes from a short fermentation following a shake or roll to bruise the edges of the tea leaves.

Many mass-market tea bags are filled with the tea dust and "fannings" left over after whole leaves have been removed to pack as loose leaf tea.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Kitchen gardens on tea gardens - grow your own

this from The Telegraph (Calcutta), by Barnali Handique

Guwahati, May 22: Women in 18 tea gardens in Golaghat district have found a way to fight anaemia by raising kitchen gardens in their homes.

“The basic idea behind starting the ‘kitchen garden’ project is to increase the intake of vegetables among tea garden workers. Prevalence of anaemia among the women is especially high, which can lead to complications in pregnant women during childbirth. Vegetables in all forms are rich in vital nutrients that help in regeneration of blood cells in the body. Therefore, we are trying to promote intake of vegetables in their regular diet,” said Swakhyar Deka, media expert of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), Golaghat.

This project was devised by the health mission, Golaghat, under its kitchen garden project.

Though the project was initially launched in Doria tea estate on an experimental basis in 2009, its effectiveness made the mission extend it to 17 more tea gardens this year. The project targets at least 150 households in each tea garden.

The NRHM, Golaghat, is currently implementing this project under a public-private partnership (PPP) mode with the respective management of these 18 tea gardens. Besides, Golaghat is the only district where this project has been launched.

According to an estimate by the Indian Council of Medical Research, about 90 per cent of women in tea gardens of the state are anaemic. Anaemia is also a major cause of concern among pregnant women belonging to the tea workers community.

“In the initial stage, we arrange for seeds and saplings of vegetables like papaya, beans, green chillies, brinjal and water gourd to be planted in a seedbed on the campus of a tea garden hospital. Once these seeds germinate, the young plants are then distributed among the beneficiaries residing in the particular tea garden so that they can raise a small kitchen garden in their own backyard. Bamboo is also provided to every household for fencing their gardens,” Deka said.

Before implementing the project in a specific tea estate, the NRHM officials also conducted sensitisation workshops to educate the workers of the tea garden on the necessity of consuming a nutritional diet to boost their immunity. They also collected blood samples of women aged between 15 years and 45 years for a haemoglobin test to monitor the rate of anaemia after the actual implementation of the project.

The NRHM officials claimed that the particular project had yielded the desired results by boosting the level of awareness among the target population.

“The feedback has shown that people in tea estates have accepted the concept of kitchen garden and more individuals have approached us asking for seeds and saplings to raise a similar garden. This is what has made us expand the project from Doria tea estate to 17 other tea gardens. We have also managed to reach our target population of 150 households in tea estates,” said Deka.

Moves to increase tourism in Assam - and I can't wait to go!

this from the Times of India

GUWAHATI: With tourism one of the top priorities of the new government in the state, Dispur has approached the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for financial assistance to build infrastructure on a par with international standards.

State tourism department principal secretary Himangshu Sekhar Das said a proposal for getting financial aid has been submitted to the ADB recently. He added that chief minister Tarun Gogoi, during a meeting with bureaucrats, has made tourism development one of the top four priorities of his new government. Gogoi has planned to go in a big way to promote tourism for generating employment. ADB has been financing infrastructure development in the state.

On Thursday, Parliament`s Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the project proposal of ADB-assisted road project for six northeastern states, including Assam. Under the project, a 433-km long road will be constructed and renovated at an estimated cost of Rs 1353.83 crore. The implementation period is from 2011 to 2016.

At present, Sikkim is the only state in the northeast which is getting financial assistance in the tourism sector from the ADB. Das said Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are the other states enjoying the benefit.

"Last week, we sent a preliminary proposal to ADB country mission director, seeking inclusion of the tourism sector in the state for financial assistance. The proposal seeks infrastructure development in the tourism sector," he added. He said once this is done, it would help in developing international standard tourism infrastructure in the state.

"Once we start getting financial assistance from ADB, the infrastructure will be developed on a par with international standards," explained Das. The tourism department has recently formed Assam Tourism Council to implement state`s policy.

Das said 50 per cent of the members in the council are from government departments. The rest are tour operators and hoteliers. The council will pave the way for tourism development through consultation and active participation from different stakeholders and departments.

Former executive director of Sikkim Tourism Development Corporation, P K Dong, who was instrumental in tourism development in his state, said Assam is fast emerging as a tourism destination.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Tea output rises in March

This from the Telegraph of Calcutta (Kolkata), by a staff reporter

Calcutta, May 8: Tea production in March saw an upswing of around 16 per cent to 56.73 million kg compared with 49 million kg produced during the same period last year.

Exports, however, fell to 11.9 million kg from 23.49 million kg last year.

According to latest data published by the Tea Board, higher production was largely on the back of higher output in Assam.

Production in the Assam valley was 21.37 million kg against 12.67 million kg produced in March 2010. Cachar production was 2.2 million kg compared with 2.1 million kg last year. Total Assam tea production stood at 23.66 million kg in March against 14.8 million kg during the same period last year.

During March, Darjeeling produced 0.5 million kg, while the output in the Dooars and Terai stood at 7.6 million kg and 6.1 million kg, respectively. Total production in Bengal registered a minor dip at 14.36 million kg against 15 million kg during March 2010.

Exports showed a negative trend and almost halved in March. In the first quarter of this year, estimated exports tea are said to be 39.62 million kg. — 22.70 million kg from North India and 16.92 million kg from the southern part of the country. In the January-March quarter last year, exports had touched 53.99 million kg.
Top

Assam Chai Bar to open in Guwahati

This from the Times of India, by Naresh Mitra

Incidentally one of my favourite teas, although in bags, is Twinings Chai

GUWAHATI: Sipping the favourite cuppa will soon be a different experience here as the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre (GTAC) is all set to open an exclusive lounge bar for tea, where brew lovers can taste, enjoy and explore the state's diverse variety.

The lounge, named Assam Chai Bar, is expected to start from August this year. "Assam tea itself is a brand. The tea lounge bar is going to add a different taste. People can sit, sip and try out different flavours," said GTAC chairperson Ravi Capoor.

Capoor, who is also principal secretary of the industries and commerce department, said the tourism department would help in marketing the lounge bar. "The tourism department will help us by mentioning the lounge bar in its literature and publicity materials. Besides, there will be promotional campaigns. The basic objective is to promote our tea along with tourism in the state," added Capoor.

As Guwahati is the gateway and the economic hub of the Northeast, a number of people come here on business. The tea can be popularized among them as also foreign tourists. "Whenever people come to Guwahati, they look for the best of Assam teas. Many a time they do not find them in the market because they do not know the variety. The lounge bar will be a one-stop destination where different varieties of tea will be available," said Capoor.

From Assam orthodox and green teas to Crush Tear Curl (CTC) like second flush tea, autumnal tea and rainy season, the lounge bar will have it all. People will also get the opportunity to explore the differences in the flavours of Brahmaputra Valley, Barak Valley and Darjeeling tea. There will also facilities for Singpho tea at the bar.

With Assam tea getting a beating from Kenyan and Sri Lankan teas in the international market, Capoor felt the lounge bar would be a small step in promoting the state's beverage. Assam produces about 13 per cent of world tea and 52 per cent of Indian tea.

"Coffee bars are coming up everywhere. We need also to do something to promote Assam tea. Although tea lounge bars have come up in other cities, the one in Guwahati will be an exceptional one in terms of variety. The lounge bar will attract the young generation too," said chairperson of North Eastern Tea Association (NETA), Bidyananda Barkakoty, adding that the lounge bar will be managed by tea producers, buyers, brokers and warehouse associations.

"GTAC has been selected for the lounge bar because it is one of the oldest tea auction centres in the world. GTAC being the stakeholders of tea producers, buyers, brokers and warehouse keepers, it is the appropriate place for the lounge bar," he explained.

Capoor also informed that IIM, Shillong has been engaged to prepare a report on why GTAC is losing in the auction to Kolkata. Many tea producers in the state opt for selling directly in Kolkata instead of auctioneering at GTAC. "We have been persistently telling tea companies to sell tea through GTAC. The report will find out why tea is being diverted from GTAC and suggest remedial measures," Capoor said.

In 2009, 138.5 million kg tea was sold through GTAC. It came down to 130.36 million kg in 2010.

Thursday, May 05, 2011

Gujaratis to sip 20% more Assam Tea

This reported in Daily News & Analysis, by Antika Pathak

Gujaratis are fond of tea. The bonding between the beverage and the people of the state is so strong that tea comes first to a person’s mind whatever the occasion may be.

That is perhaps why Gujarat accounts for the highest consumption of tea in India.

And looking at the current market, the consumption of tea, particularly Assam tea, in Gujarat is expected to rise. So Gujarat is going to order 20% more Assam tea by the year-end.

According to Ahmedabad Tea Merchant Association president HT Agrawal, 75% of tea consumed in Gujarat is being brought from Assam but since the demand for this particular tea is rising, the procurement amount will go up by 20%.

“We currently procure around 45 million kg tea from Assam, which is expected to increase to around 55 million kg,’’ he said.

He said almost 12% of Assam produce is procured by Gujarat. And from the auction centre at Guwahati, Gujarat procures around 60% of tea, said
Ashok Relia, adviser and senior committee member of the association.

While Gujarat gets 75% of its tea requirement from Assam, it gets the remaining quantity from the South and West Bengal. But since the demand for tea, particularly Assam tea, is rising, the price is also likely to go up.

“A rise of around Rs15 per kg is expected in Assam tea. Also, the production of good quality tea seems to have gone down and this is to push up the tea prices,” said Agrawal.

Assam produces best quality tea. That is why people of the state love it.

Association officials say while the demand is growing, the procurement is not keeping pace so the demand-supply mismatch will increase the prices by 5-10% in case of Assam tea by the year-end.

“The demand-supply mismatch would increase the price by 5-10%,” said Relia.

Currently, the prices of Assam tea are in the range of Rs185 per kg to Rs250 per kg.

With 65 million kg of tea, Gujarat accounts for 8% of tea consumed in India in a year. India consumes around 800 million kg in year.

“The per capita monthly consumption of tea in Gujarat has already increased from 1.2 kg to 1.4kg, and by the end of the year Gujarat’s tea consumption is likely to cross 70 million kg,’’ said Relia.

He said that Punjab, Chandigarh and J&K come next in tea consumption.

A delegation of 33 members of Ahmedabad Tea Merchant Association recently visited Assam to get first-hand knowledge about the production of various types of tea in the north-eastern state.

Fewer factories to be set up to improve quality of tea

This from the Calcutta Telegraph, by a staff reporter

Too many factories spoil brew
- Association plea for steps
A STAFF REPORTER

Jorhat, April 25: Cut-throat competition among factories in an attempt to produce more tea and coming up of at least 10 new bought leaf factories in the last few months have hit production of quality tea in Assam in recent times.

The Assam Bought Leaf Tea Manufacturers’ Association while apprising the state government of this has appealed to take necessary steps to check setting up of new factories so that quality tea could be produced.

“Setting up of these factories has resulted in demand for more green leaf and the increasing demand has forced small tea growers to pluck coarse leaves to make more money resulting in production of poor quality tea,” the chairman of the association, K. Sensowa, said in a letter to industries minister Pradyut Bordoloi a couple of days back.

Sensowa said despite the state industry department’s decision not to issue licences for setting of any bought leaf factory a few months back, at least 10 such factories had come up in Dibrugarh, Tinsukia and Golaghat districts in the last few months.

“It is surprising as to how these new factories have got their licences,” Sensowa said while talking to this correspondent.

There are 186 registered bought leaf factories in the state producing about 140 million kg of made tea per year which is about 30 per cent of total production of the state.

Blaming the bought leaf tea manufacturing factories for producing poor quality tea which has earned a bad name for Assam tea in recent years, the state industries department had decided to stop issuing licences for setting up of more such factories.

However, at least 10 new factories have come up in the last few months, which the industries department claims, have been set up on a temporary basis.

“These licences have been issued on a provisional manner,” a senior official of the industries department said.

Sensowa said there had been a shortage of green leaves and with the new factories coming up, the demand for green leaves had increased manifold.

“The result is that the small tea growers are providing coarse leaves to meet the growing demand and the quality of tea has deteriorated,” he said.

He said the restriction of issuing licences to bought leaf factories would stabilise the demand and supply of green leaf and would also help in producing good quality tea.

Sensowa also said there had been many instances when green leaves were transported for over 100km from the garden to the factory and this has resulted in production of poor quality tea.

“Only bought leaf factories are not responsible for such acts, several big companies are buying green leaves from small tea growers in a bid to produce more tea. These leaves are transported to a long distance. By the time the green leaves reach the factories, the leaves dry up thus hampering quality production,” Sensowa said.

The association has appealed to the government to take necessary steps to discourage such disturbing practices, especially by the organised sector which is spoiling the quality of tea and creating a bad name in the international market.

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

English tea drunk in New York for Royal Wedding

This from the New York Times 28 April 2011, by Jeremy Olshan


The whole world is going to teapot.

There's only one proper way to toast to the pomp and frenzy surrounding the royal couple as they tie the knot tomorrow: with a cup of English Breakfast tea.

The famed blend of Ceylon and Assam tea leaves is ideal for the 5 a.m. event, said Nicky Perry, owner of Tea & Sympathy in the West Village.

"It's what the queen herself drinks," she said. "She makes her own teas and travels with her own kettle, using nothing but Malvern [spring] water."

Unfortunately, many Americans are ill-informed about the details of tea, Perry lamented.

"American tea tastes as though it were pulled straight from Boston harbor," Perry said.

As for brands, Perry recommends, PG Tips or Yorkshire Gold.

"For God's sake, forget the Lipton," she said.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Article relating to Gillanders - should business houses be allowed to open banks

This in the Economic Times . It gives some history of the tea companies

The answer is "No". A business house " is a uniquely Indian expression. It is not common in other countries. By "business house" we refer to a loose conglomerate with ownership and control usually vesting with a family. The conglomerate almost always consists of multiple private and public companies, where the shareholdings of the controlling group/family can be very low or very high. "Business houses" are lineal descendants of "managing agencies" which dominated the business scene in British India. Andrew Yule, Gillanders Arbuthnot and so on were the fabled names. When Indians emerged as entrepreneurs, they imitated managing agencies and we had the emergence of Tata Sons , Birla Brothers and so on.

The managing agency system did at first serve a positive purpose as investors were reluctant to put their capital directly into companies not "backed" by well-known names. But over time, the maze of related party transactions among the different companies managed by a single "House" was rightly seen as inimical to good corporate governance and minority shareholders. Hence the Managing Agency system was abolished. But by this time, large interlocked conglomerates had become well-established.

In the sixties, the Hazari Commission and the Dutt Committee established the fact that the principal beneficiaries of the infamous permit-licence raj were these business houses who systematically pre-empted valuable licences that were sparingly doled out by our socialistic sarkar; they effectively sabotaged the entry of competitors. In the absence of free and easy entry for new entrepreneurs our economy became sclerotic; Indian consumers were forced to buy shoddy and expensive goods all coming from the same handful of powerful and influential business houses.

The control that business houses exercised over commercial banks (through pretty low shareholdings) resulted in even more insidious outcomes. A new entrepreneur who did not have connections to these families found himself or herself pretty much excluded from bank finance. Easy bank finance (without too many uncomfortable questions being asked) was also made available to the business houses to acquire controlling interest in several companies especially the ones that British capital was pulling out of.

That is why many economists opposed to "social control" and later bank nationalisation went along with these decisions as serving a second order optimisation purpose-by eliminating the vice that resulted from the interlocking of banking with commerce. This, incidentally has been the governing principle for banking permissions in the US where there has been an abiding fear that banks are already very powerful and letting them into the world of commerce would lead to unacceptable levels of concentration of power that would be inimical to the political economy of a democratic republic. To this day, General Electric has not been granted a banking licence precisely for this reason.

The proposal to grant banking licences to Indian business houses is bad policy given the history of our country as any cursory reading of the Hazari and Dutt reports will show. It will reinforce the unhealthy trends of crony capitalism that we see so much of. It will result in the creation of gigantic Zaibatsu houses a la Japan. It will definitely dampen new entrepreneurship as cozy inter-connected clubs like to keep out upstarts. The argument that only large business houses have capital is a weak one. World-class banks like HDFC Bank , Axis Bank and ICICI Bank have emerged without such backing. At this point in time in our history, let us not give in to the phony arguments of crony capitalist ideologues.

(Jaithirth Rao has been a banker, an IT entrepreneur and now runs a company that provides low- cost housing.
A regular in the newspaper commentary space, his calling card is iconoclasm)

Saturday, April 02, 2011

Web site for the annual Assam Tea Tourism Festival

I would love to go to this.

Assam Tea Tourism Festival

I know it is also possible to do tours of tea gardens and even stay at some while visiting the region.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Another web site with information on Gillanders and a photo showing Jutlibari TE with ISO 9001

Follow the link as the image is copyrighted

Deccan Herald reporter visits Shillong

I came across this story of the Deccan Herald reporter, Bharati Motwani's visit to Shillong, the birthplace of my father.

It is a very informative article which makes Shillong sound beautiful and somewhere I am determined to visit, if the family can ever get itself organised and presuming I will be able to find the money from somewhere in the light of recent events i.e. my losing my job.

A distant dream
Bharati Motwani


Bharati Motwani visits Shillong where music is food for life, buildings reflect the city’s colonial past and warrior tribes still believe in animistic tradition.

Even if he didn’t know it, Bob Dylan had his 69th birthday party in Shillong this year. Long-haired, tattooed musicians played Dylan’s timeless anti-war anthem Blowing in the wind. Standing on a makeshift-stage, 60 year-old Lou Majaw, Shillong’s best loved-musician and Dylan addict said, “To Bob, wherever you are …”, before launching into Everybody must get stoned. Hundreds clapped, cheered and sang along, blocking traffic at a busy roundabout. And that is the spirit of Shillong. A town of pretty, sloe-eyed Khasi girls, pink-cheeked Anglo-Indians, and boys lounging rakishly at street corners, hair gelled, earlobes pierced — dressed to celebrate the evening, the weather, youth and life.

Local wares

Everywhere there is music — thumping out of restaurants and small jadoh stalls, wafting out of churches, reflected through posters for rock-concerts, musical talent hunts, through a retired tea-planter thrumming his old guitar in the backyard and a silver-haired old lady dreaming over the keys of a burnished Steinway. To slip under the skin of this entrancing town, take a ride to Burra Bazar on a local bus.

Squeeze yourself between many betel-stained, rotten-toothed grins; mind you don’t get your bottom pecked by angry, but still lecherous roosters trussed up in a basket; avoid making eye-contact with the severed head of a pig riding in the lap of a little boy. Though it’s only 9 am and a little early to start drinking, it’s okay to accept a swig of gin from the hip-flask so generously proffered by a smiling school teacher. She’s late for class and possibly tipsy, but hey, welcome to Shillong!

The travel brochure says Burra Bazar is a good place for tourists in search of local colour. Here, at a butcher’s section, huge beef carcasses hang from big meat-hooks, mounds of intestines, gizzards and entrails sit around slimily. And in the middle of each stall, framed by all the gore, there sits a pretty local lass, dressed to kill — high heels, bright lipstick, and scarlet nails. Indeed, the Khasis eat pretty much everything that moves, wriggles and slithers.

Another section of the market has tubs full of water-snakes, hornet larvae, maggots and beetles, all alive. A sweet, old lady gave me a recipe for oak-tree maggots sold at Rs 800 per kg, fresh and crawling. Just boil the critters for three minutes, sauté them lightly in butter, add a dash of salt and chilli and serve hot.

There are mounds of fresh kwai or betel nut that locals chew all the time. It warms you up in winter but will leave your ears burning and head spinning. There are baskets of reed, grass and beautifully crafted bows and arrows used by the locals at the Archery Stakes. The old tribal sport of archery has metamorphosed into a major gambling event, with daily stakes at Saw–Furlong and Polo Grounds. Archers from local clubs participate, while bookies scurry about placing bets that run into crores.

The British in India were always homesick for the rolling greens and shifting mists of Devon and the Cotswolds. Here, in Shillong, they rediscovered Scotland and promptly set up shop, making it the administrative headquarters of Assam in 1874. They built cathedrals, laid parks and created a township of winding lanes and mock-Tudor houses with gardens adrift in phlox, pansies and briar rose. Having done that, they laid themselves to eternal rest in shady graveyards.

For memories of the Raj, visit Ward Lake with its curving promenade and Lady Hydari Park with its pine groves (the native Pinus Khasiana that are the signature of these hills). Shillong’s beautiful 18-hole golf course is often compared to Gleneagle in Scotland, and is one of the oldest and most perfect natural golf courses in the world. A short drive away is Umiam Lake, a favourite haunt for Shillong’s high-spirited youngsters.

The tribes of Meghalaya — the Garos, Khasis and Jaintias — are matrilineal. Women wield considerable authority, but Khasi men are fiercely territorial about their women. All three tribes are essentially animistic despite having adopted Christian and Hindu practices. All over the Khasi hills are Stonehenge-like obelisks called mawbynnas, that mark the burials of ancient warriors. At Smit village, at the edge of town, we visit a liquor till, where we quaff a tumbler or two of the staple Khasi tipple — kakyat, a kind of rice beer.

Driving out of Shillong into the countryside, you begin to really breathe in the essence of Meghalaya — home of the storm clouds. The rolling fog is thick with legend, for the locals believe that all things have an indwelling spirit — every waterfall is a sorrowing maiden, every green hill is a brave warrior, every rock-formation the accoutrements of a giant.

Of waterfalls and caves

Just short of Cherrapunjee is Krem Mawsmai, a cave passage into the maw of the hill. The surreal shapes created by thousands of years of calcite sedimentation are believed to be the “marrowless bones of a giant”. Krem Mawsmai is located in the middle of a silent, sacred grove, so thick that light does not penetrate to the ground. Here, one must tread softly so as not to offend the trees. Not a branch must be broken, not a flower violated. The passage at Mawsmai once led all the way to Bangladesh, but the tunnel collapsed during the earthquake of 1894. It is believed that a local king once hid his entire army inside Krem Mawsmai during a battle with the British.

At Cherrapunjee, now unseated by Mawsynram as the wettest place on earth, are the milky Mawsmai Falls, hurtling down a cliff-face. Laitkynsew in Cherrapunjee is a sight straight out of an Enid Blyton story. It has a bridge made out of the secondary roots of a tree, an absolute marvel of bio-engineering and tribal wisdom.

The roots are stretched and planted on the opposite bank. It takes about 30 years for the bridge to gain the requisite strength, growing and regenerating. There are several such living root bridges in the area and they are unique to Meghalaya. Some are over 200 years old and have outlasted conventional bridges.

All of the area is dotted with caves, waterfalls and strange rock formations. Everything is impossibly green, moist and alive. The spirits of the forests have whispered their enchantments into your ears, and your life in the city feels dreamlike. “Why go back?” they whisper.

Election promises for Assam tea workers

It seems I am very unaware of current affairs in India, which was not the case when I was studying for my MA. I am resolved, now I have more time on my hands to be better informed.

Elections are due later this year, and the BJP have made an election pledge to increase the daily pay of workers in Assam to 100 Rs. Despite the fact that Assam produces the most tea in India, the area remains underdeveloped and more investment is needed. The party is making this pledge because to woo the votes of those living and working on the tea gardens.

Read the full story in The Times of India.

Article about the affect of climate change on Assam tea

A worrying article from the Guardian in 2010, describing the affects of global warming on the taste of Assam tea. To think that the taste of Jutlibari tea could change .......

Climate change leaves Assam tea growers in hot water

Rising temperatures reducing yields and altering distinctive flavour of India's most popular drink

Climate change is affecting the cultivation of Assam tea, with rising temperatures reducing yields and altering the distinctive flavour of India's most popular drink, researchers say.

High hills and abundant rainfall make the north-eastern state of Assam an ideal place to grow tea, with 850 gardens over 320,000 hectares (593,000 acres) producing the majority of the country's harvest. But in the last 60 years, rainfall has fallen by more than a fifth and minimum temperature has risen by a degree to 19.5C.

"This is clearly climate change, and it is bound to have major impact on the tea industry," said Debakanta Handique, a climate scientist in Assam.

The Tea Board of India said it had recorded a steady decline in tea production in recent years. In 2007, Assam produced 512,000 tonnes of tea. By 2008 this had declined to 487,000 tonnes, with estimated production in 2009 down again to 445,000. A further decrease is expected this year.

Mridul Hazarika, director of Tocklai Tea Research, the oldest tea research station in the world, said rainfall and minimum temperature were two of the most important factors affecting both quality and quantity of harvests.

"The decline has been taking place although there has been an increase in the area of tea cultivation as new gardens have come up, and many gardens have added new areas for tea plantation. This is an indication of the seriousness of the threat," said Hazarika. Efficient rainwater harvesting and new breeds of tea plants were needed to reverse the trend.

"Changes have already been observed in the flavour, but it is not possible to blame only climate change for this," he said. "Other factors like the fertilisers used and cultivation methods might also be partly responsible."

The changing taste of Assam tea is a serious concern for growers. Sudipta Nayan Goswami, an Assam-based planter, said subtle changes had already been observed: "The flavour has changed from what it was before. The creamy and strong flavour is no more."

"There is a huge demand for Assam tea abroad, and this is due to its strong, bright flavour. The changes will sharply hamper the demand for this variety of tea abroad."

History of Assam Tea

While there are fewer stories about the Jutlibari Tea Estate to be found on the Internet at present, I would like to take the opportunity of including more general information about the Assam region.

I do not propose to rehash the history, but do check out the Wikipedia entry on Assam Tea. I use Wikipedia all the time to look things up, so while entries are created by individuals I usually find the information reliable.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Census data from Voice of Bharat

Check out this page for census data for Bijulibari and Jutlibari villages on the tea estates.

My family also had links to Bijulibari
http://www.voiceofbharat.org/dibrugarh/view_results.asp?NAME=&sorttype=ASC&NAV=10&sortid=

Lots of useful information about Dibrugarh generally can be accessed from the homepage http://www.voiceofbharat.org/

Check out this great tea blog: AmazonV tea taste tracking

With apologies to Nicole Schwartz, with whom I exchanged comments at finding a photo of a jutlibari tin on her blog and asking if I could create a link. Nicole really takes her love of tea seriously and has comprehensively tasted and catalogued a wide variety of teas.

A great resource for the tea lover!

http://amazonv.blogspot.com/