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Tea Board’s drive to improve the quality of teas in the market seems to be paying off.
According to a senior official of the Board, the Board is no longer confining the quality check to teas that quote below a certain level at the auction.
“We used to check such teas earlier to understand what went wrong and where, but are now working on various quality checks to ensure that the consumer gets good tea for the price he pays. The newly recruited factory officers do a random sample check and submit their report.
“While there is huge scope for improvement on the quality front, the industry needs to pay more attention to conform to food safety norms. Factories should refrain from mixing tea waste. Prices are expected to improve as the crop has been good and the demand is picking up,” the official said.
A closer look at the Board’s intervention and checks revealed some improvement in rejection rate.
According to the official, the Board had collected 1.23 lakh kg of tea samples from the Bought Leaf Factories for quality check in 2013.
“Nearly 42,000 kg of samples (about 40 per cent) failed the PFA test. During the first six months of 2014, we collected 86,000 kg tea samples of which 20,000 kg of samples did not conform to quality norms. There is some improvement as the rejection rate has dropped from 40 per cent to 25 per cent.”
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