Centre, state deal to make Darjeeling a AEZ

Kolkata, Jun 5: The Union government and the West Bengal government would shortly sign a memorandum of understanding to formally declare Darjeeling as an agri-export zone (AEZ), Tea Board Chairman Basudeb Banerjee said today.

The Centre had identified the Tea Board and APEDA, while the state government had shortlisted West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) as the nodal agencies for implementing the project, Mr Banerjee said.

The MOU would enable integration of Central and state government schemes for co-ordinated approach for overall development of the Darjeeling tea industry, he said in the sidelines of the Darjeeling Tea Associations AGM.

Altogether 27 tea gardens in Darjeeling would be covered under the AEZ.

He said under the 11th five year plan more emphasis would be given to development of the factories so that the quality of the product could be improved.

The Tea Board had already engaged IIT Kharagpur to improve the blend and packaging of Darjeeling tea.

'' We are also trying to upgrade the Darjeeling Tea Research Association at Kurseong as a Centre of Excellence so that all the issues relating to quality and intellectual property rights could be handled under one roof, '' he said.

Darjeeling produced 10 million kg of tea last year, which were mostly exported to Germany, Japan, UK and US. ''Efforts are on to increase domestic consumption of Darjeeling, which is 2-3 million kg at present,'' he added.

UNI