Tea Board of India to set up councils to boost export.

The Tea Board of India will set up separate councils for the north and south India to facilitate exports and keep a watch on the quality of the crop sold to overseas buyers, a board official said Wednesday.

The decision was taken as the quality of tea was degraded during the first half year due to lack of rainfall.

Tea Board chairman MGVK Bhanu said, "Tea Board is looking at establishing a council where the members will be exporters, producers, traders, warehouse owners and representatives of Tea Board. The purpose of this council is to inspect every consignment and warehouse facilities whether they are confirming the standards specified by law."

However, the details of the council's mandate are yet to be specified. A senior Indian Tea Association official, under the conditions of anonymity, said, "I has proposed it but there are no clarifications on the mandates. There are few complaints about some export consignments but that is not significant."

The Tea Board has also decided to send samples of tea to the National Institute of Nutrition in Hyderabad in south India to carry out toxicological study about presence of iron filings in tea.

This is likely to help tea traders who face harassment from Prevention of Food Adulteration Authorities.

Meanwhile, export of tea from India has dropped by 4.4 percent during the first three months of 2012. Export during January-March period was 43.8 million kilograms against 45.8 million kilograms for the same period in 2011.

India exports CTC (crush-tear-curl) tea mainly to Egypt, Pakistan and the U.K. and the premium orthodox variety to Iraq, Iran and Russia.

Source : globaltimes.cn