- Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura
Agartala, July 30, 2022 : Tripura Chief Minister Prof Dr. Manik Saha on Saturday launched the newly introduced ‘Tripureswari Premium Tea’ packet branded by the Tripura Tea Development Corporation (TTDC) for the tea lovers willing to taste it by purchasing from open market other than the fair price shops across the state.
Addressing the mediapersons at Civil Secretariat here in Agartala city on Saturday morning, Dr Saha said that the Tripura tea had secured fifth position in terms of production across the country due to the excellent functioning and management by the Tripura Tea Development Corporation under the chairmanship of Santosh Saha for the past four years.
“Earlier, my predecessor Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb had introduced ‘Tripureswari’ tea which was distributed through fair price shops. Now, the corporation has reintroduced tea production by making the quality better and branding it as ‘Tripureswari Premium Tea’ among the masses easily available in the open markets,” he added.
Sharing the detailed information about tea gardens, productions and processing units, the Chief Minister said that the tea industry in Tripura is over 100 years old with the Hiracherra tea estate in Unakoti district dating back to 1916.
“At present, Tripura’s tea production is about 9-10 lakh kilograms annually which is roughly about ten percent of all tea production of India is produced in this state’s 12,990 hectares of land. There are 54 tea gardens in the state. TTDC manages 3 gardens, 12 are managed by cooperative societies, and 39 are managed privately,” – he stated.
“There are 22 Tea processing factories and among them, two are managed by TTDC, five are managed by cooperative societies and 15 are managed privately. Over 14,000 labourers are engaged with tea gardens and processing factories. Apart from these, 2800 small-scale growers are there and they produce 8 million kilograms of green tea,” he added.
He also said that the state government is supportive as the source of energy for the development of the tea industry in Tripura.
The government also extended help to those labourers who had problem with ‘pattas’, arranging proper environment for the tea cultivators, scope of infilling and helping small-scale growers.
“Not only these, an auction centre to be opened up soon, steps initiated for exporting of tea to neighbouring country Bangladesh, employment opportunities in tea industry, assistance in marketing of tea production, subsidies through tea board, etc,” Dr Saha told reporters.
The Tripura Tea Development Corporation started its journey in August 1980 and at present, there are three tea gardens located at Machmara under Unakoti district, Kamalasagar under Sepahijala district and Brahmakunda under West Tripura district. The corporation also regulates two tea processing factories at Durgabari CTPC and Brahmakunda BTPC.
He further added that TTDC has been tasting success since 2018, and logo and ‘Tripureswari’ tea name was introduced, tea corner opened at the premises of BirChandra State Central Library in Agartala city, packetized tea distributed through fair price shops, etc.
Besides, the TTDC Chairman noted that “Over the past few years, the corporation has been making relentless efforts to improve the quality of this tea on the one hand and to market this tea more successfully on the other hand. The corporation felt the need to invent another new tea brand of better quality with an aim to meet the growing needs of the larger business community and other segments of the people beyond the fair price shops. Accordingly, today a new brand of leaves named ‘Tripureswari Premium Tea’ with higher quality has been launched.”
