Jan. 10: Tea Board officials, including chairman N.K. Das, are scheduled to visit the capital next week to hold a meeting with producers. At the meeting, the producers would be urged to provide greater support to electronic auctions.

A meeting has been scheduled at the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre (GTAC) on January 20, to which tea producers have been invited. On the agenda is a request urging them to offer more teas at the electronic auctions.

Tea Board officials here said the chairman has decided to visit the city after receiving reports that electronic auctions have failed miserably at the GTAC, the third largest CTC auction centre in the world.

?We would like to hear about their grievances from the producers themselves, on whom a great responsibility rests as far as the success of electronic auctions is concerned,? a Tea Board official here said.

Officials said all efforts would be made to woo the producers so that the electronic auction system becomes a success.

The poor response to the electronic auction has come as a surprise to board officials as the quality of tea offered is the same as that in the manual auction.

Sources said the board would lay a proposal before the producers, asking them to offer 100 per cent of the teas through electronic auctions. A leading broker, while welcoming the renewed initiative by the board, expressed his doubts whether producers would be interested in offering more teas at electronic auctions.

?Prices are already low and nobody would have much interest in offering teas at the electronic auctions,? said the broker.

Electronic bidding started at the GTAC last year. It was believed that it would provide better prices and ensure greater participation.

But the trading community has expressed its unhappiness over the operation of the system. Prices realised at the electronic auctions are around Rs 5 less than that being offered at the manual auctions, which is causing a lot of heartburn.

Technical snags are still hampering the system, making faster movement of teas difficult. ?The electronic mode of auctions still does not enjoy the confidence of the trading community, which can be a serious bottleneck,? another broker said.

The Tea Board has promised all help to the GTAC for running the electronic auctions for a two-year period, after which it will be run by the GTAC.

The GTAC sold 139 million kg in 2003-04 as against 125 million kg in 2002-03.