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Shri Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Commerce has said that the government is keeping a close watch on tea prices. In a statement in response to the calling attention motion on “Situation arising out of unprecedented fall in price of green tea leaves particularly in Nilgiri hill district of Tamil Nadu causing hardships to the small tea growers and steps taken by the government in regard thereto” in the Lok Sabha today, Shri Kamal Nath said that he shared the concern of the members who had raised this issue in Parliament.
While prices of tea have generally depressed in recent years, the decline had been more pronounced in the case of South India, especially in the Nilgiris District of Tamil Nadu where the fall had been the highest, he noted, and said that the drop in prices was partly due to the profusion in growth of leaf tea which had led to increased plucking and also to comparatively poor quality of green leaf plucked for supply to the processing factories. However, he also pointed out that “good quality leaf continues to get reasonably good prices and better quality made tea also fetches good prices despite the decline in average prices”.
About the initiatives being taken to address the issues of quality, Shri Kamal Nath said that: “Tea Board had launched a Quality Awareness Programme (QAP) in July 2000 in the Nilgiris and it is being continued till date. This programme is being implemented in collaboration with UPASI Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), the Department of Horticulture, Government of Tamil Nadu and the NGOs and Self Help Groups (SHG)”.
In addition to the efforts of the Tea Board to persuade the factories to produce quality tea, it has become necessary to enforce quality norms which conform to standards laid down under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act. Various steps have been initiated by the Tea Board in this regard, including action against those factories which have been found to have produced substandard teas, the Minister said.
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SB/MRS
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