Tata Tea MD Percy Siganporia (left) with Nipo vice-president D. Baruah in Calcutta on Tuesday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, April 3: Imagine biting into piping hot samosas and sipping a cup of fine Darjeeling tea in downtown Cairo! Like the flavour? Take some home, or better still, place bulk orders.

Welcome to the Tea Board and Indian Tea Association’s dream café and tea marketing centre in Cairo.

A delegation, which just returned from Egypt, has shortlisted two Egyptians of Indian origin who work with restaurant chains and airport lounges, to provide third party catering to this centre.

“We have found a very suitable location in downtown Cairo. The Indian Tea Centre would have a café that will serve Indian tea and snacks. The environment would be that of a café-cum-business centre where consumers would be able to buy tea and place orders in bulk too,” said Azam Monem, chairman of export promotion and marketing sub committee, ITA.

The café would seat around 50 to 60 people. The Union commerce ministry has given an in-principle approval for setting up the centre, the costs of which will be shared by the Tea Board and the ITA.

The proposal for such a centre was first mooted in September 2005 keeping in mind the enormous potential of the Egyptian tea market where the Tea Board expects to increase exports by 10 times to 10 million kg in the next five years.

“We expect about 10 to 12 Indian companies that will stock and display tea brands with catalogues. For the first time, consumers will be able to sample and buy tea on the spot. The centre will also have contact points across other major Egyptian cities to facilitate delivery of retail or bulk tea to consumers located in any part of Egypt,” added Sujit Patra, joint secretary of ITA.

Monem added that ITA was initially thinking of a tie-up with a restaurant chain for the café catering but the idea was scrapped as they did not want the restaurant brand to override that of the tea centre.

Tata Tea

Tata Tea has reassured the four unions in its Bengal tea estates that the working condition will remain the same even if the workers choose to become shareholders.

Tata Tea has invited workers to pick up stakes in its divested North Indian Plantation Operations (Nipo) at par value of Rs 10 per share. While the four labour unions in Bengal claim to have rejected the proposal, the Assam Cha Mazdoor Sangha, the major union in Assam, has given the go-ahead to the workers to participate voluntarily.

In a letter dated March 31, the company stated that wages, rations and medical benefits under the Plantation Labour Act will be honoured by the company and all workers would also continue to receive bonus, gratuity and other benefits.

“We expect a positive response from Assam where the two tea unions have given the workers a go-ahead to become shareholders. However, in Bengal the unions will not actively propagate the company’s proposal but neither will they oppose,” Percy Siganporia, managing director of Tata Tea said.

Siganporia added that the ‘economic benefit’ derived from the stake divestment in Nipo would be utilised to part-fund Tata Tea’s Glaceau acquisition.