Aug. 30: After the Japanese and the Russians, it is now the turn of the Americans to visit the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre and get acquainted with the functioning of the electronic auction system.

A seven-member delegation from the Tea Institute and Tea Association of USA will visit the auction centre in the first week of September and meet buyers and officials from other segments of the industry.

The visit has been organised by the Tea Board.

Sources said the objective of the American delegation’s visit is not trade, but to know more about the research and development taking place in the tea sector.

The auction centre had recently introduced the electronic auction system to save time and ensure transparency in the process of selling tea.

The Tea Board has pledged to extend all possible help to the auction centre for two years. The Guwahati centre is the second centre in India after Coimbatore to go electronic.

Officials said the system is now fully functional with buyers and sellers participating in it with great enthusiasm.

Delegations from Russia and Japan earlier visited the auction centre to witness the functioning of the electronic auction system.

The centre — the third largest of its kind in the world — sold 139 million kg of tea in 2003-04 as against the 125 million kg the previous year.

“This will be a good chance for the buyers and sellers to get in touch with the Americans and find out their preferences,” an official said. Consumers in America generally prefer speciality tea.

“We will have to shift the focus from CTC to orthodox tea to get a share in the American market,” an official said.

India had exported 8,587 tonnes of tea to the US in 2003 as compared to the 7,361 tonnes in 2002, 6,180 in 2001 and 7,469 in 2000. America buys packet tea and tea bags.

The US had imported 93,474 tonnes of tea from various countries in 2002.

The tea sold at the Guwahati auction centre comes from Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura and very recently from the Nilgiris.

The world's third largest tea auction centre went online on June 21 amid opposition by the Indian Tea Association (ITA) to the move to make it mandatory for companies to sell the bulk of their produce through auctions. Union minister of state for commerce and industry E.V.K.S. Elangovan had inaugurated the online bidding system.