Tea chocolate, tea wine to revive ailing tea industry

Aizawl, Nov 05 (UNI) In a bid to give a facelift to the ailing tea industry in North East, the Toklai Experimental Station (TES) of Tea Research Association (TRA) in its unique project will popularise Tea chocolate, Tea wine, Tea capsule and Stevia tea.

The TES had launched a frequent interaction between marketing and scientific research groups in collaboration with Tea Board of India (TBI) to globally promote the Indian value added tea.

''Besides, TBI has stepped up logo promotion and certification trade marks in Tea festivals in thrust countries from this year, trying out innovative ideas of tea use,'' Toklai Director Mridul Hazarika told UNI.

He said TBI had kept Rs 140 crores against all India figure of Rs 350 crores under the board's 10th Plan schemes for NE region. Out of this Rs 48.59 crores is meant for Plantation Development Scheme, Rs 36.80 crores for Quality Upgradation and Product Diversification Scheme, Rs 18.60 crores for Market Promotion Scheme and Rs 33 crore for Research and Development Scheme in NE.

The NE states have about 2.8 lakh hectares of tea cultivation land, which constitutes 55 per cent of the country's total tea area and produces about 455 million kilogram of tea per annum that is 53 per cent of India's total tea production, while, about 70 million kg of tea is exported from the region, he said.

'' Though Asom and Tripura are the traditional tea growing NE states, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh have also joined the race recently,'' Mr Hazarika said.

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