The Tea Board of India plans to bring in all the auction centres under one umbrella. This will enable growers/producers to take part in the auction from any part of the country without any hassle. It will become a reality shortly, said Executive Director R. Ambalavanan.
At present, the auction centres in Kolkata, Siliguri, Guwahati, Kochi, Coimbatore and Coonoor are conducting online auction individually. Collectively, these centres handle 50 per cent of production (600 million kg) annually, with Kolkata leading the show, followed by Guwahati, Coonoor and Kochi. Tea Board wants to increase this number to 60-70 per cent. Talking to The Hindu , Mr. Ambalavanan said, “Though the electronic auction system was introduced during 2008, different sets of rules are followed in different areas. We are trying to integrate them into a single platform so as to have uniform rules and procedures.”
Integration of these centres would result in widening the consumer base, providing better bargaining power, bringing down prices and ensuring availability of quality products, he said.
Mr. Ambalavanan said it would not cost much for the co-operative society to get on a common platform that would be provided by the Tea Board.
These societies had to carry out certain modifications in their software to get on to the bandwagon. The United Planters’ Association of Southern India was also in process of creating its own portal for e-auctioning.
To a question on the performance of the tea sector till September, he said it was likely to touch the last year’s level of 850 million kg.