Guwahati, June 7: The Guwahati Tea Auction Centre (GTAC) is set to turn over a new leaf by bringing organic green tea under the hammer for the first time in its history.
At the 23rd sale in the largest CTC auction centre in the country on Tuesday, brokers will be offered 21kg of organic green tea from Deha tea estate in Upper Assam's Jorhat district.
J. Thomas, the largest tea brokerage in the world, is selling the tea variety.
During the 22nd sale last week, 72kg of green tea from Chandighat garden in Cachar was offered at the centre, which fetched Rs 400 per kg and was bought by Pijush K. Roy of Kamakhya tea trading in Guwahati. He said the tea was for the internal market and was offered at the auction centre after more than two decades.
A GTAC official said the lot and packet sizes have been made smaller to encourage green tea producers, as production is not much. "If the trend continues, we will introduce a separate platform for green tea," he said.
According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), world green tea production is expected to grow at 8.2 per cent compared to 2.9 per cent for black tea, reflecting the growth in China where green tea production is expected to reach 2.97 million tonnes by 2023.
The green tea market in India is growing at about 50 per cent annually and is likely to be worth around Rs 400 crore by the end of 2014-15, according to Tata Global Beverages Limited.
Bikash Agarwal, director, Deha tea estate, said the company had offered organic CTC in the past but this was the first time that organic green tea was being auctioned.
"The price, at the moment, is immaterial because buyers have to first know that a particular garden makes green teas. Though the market is a niche one, there seems to be a definitive future for it. Knowing the health benefits associated with green tea, more and more people are taking to it. So we decided to offer it in the auction," Agarwal told The Telegraph.
Organic green tea is non-fermented tea with pale greenish liquor and a raw, pungent flavour.
It contains antioxidants, which help fight cholesterol, control heart diseases and high blood pressure, besides other health benefits.
Deha started the process of conversion to organic tea in 2006 and was certified in 2009. "Since then we have been making organic CTC tea and since the last one-and-half years, we have ventured into organic green tea as the demand is huge. The cost of production is very high and today's market does not give remunerative prices," he admitted.
The 267-hectare garden, of which 44.5 hectares is organically certified, produces approximately 30,000-35,000 kg of organic teas during a specific period of the year. The average price fetched by the garden was around Rs 221 a kilogram at Guwahati auction last year.
"The volumes are small and people are taking to it for associated health benefits," Harsh Kejriwal, a senior official of Rungamattee Tea and Industries Ltd, which owns the Chandighat garden, said.
