Tripura exports tea in Middle East nation

Agartala, Aug 27: Following a green signal from Kazakhstan, Tripura sent it's first tea consignment to the West Asian countries recently from renowned Manuvalley Tea Estate of Asia.

According to General Manager of the estate of Tripura Group of Gardens J C Das, about 58,000 kg green tea leaves were exported to Iran at the rate of Rs 68 per kg early this month.

With the opening of export advantage, the authority is going set up the second biggest Flud bed dryer of the world in Manuvalley Tea Estate, about 200 KM from here, said Mr Das.

Mr Das complained that three problems - inadequate labour force, insufficient co-operation from the state forest department and crisis of coal for the factory had now become major hurdles to the management, which hampered the development and production in the garden.

''Due to inadequate support from the state government, we are losing labourers and now we have only 600 workers left for managing the gardens spread over about 12 hectares of land along northern border with Bangladesh,'' he said.

Mr Das also alleged that uprooting work during March every year was hampered because forest department did not co-operate them in uprooting the older plants and clearing the jungle in nearby area.

Despite the odds, the factory had been producing the best quality tea, which earned overwhelming response from the Middle East and Asian nations, Mr Das claimed adding, ''We are expecting a big deal from our neighbours."

UNI