Tea Board has announced that a special auction will be conducted in different auction centres in the country to celebrate the first International Tea Day (ITD) and some proceeds from this are likely to be contributed to relief funds, especially at this trying time when the nation is fighting against Covid-19.

This follows the United Nations General Assembly designating May 21 as ITD based on the proposal put forth by the Government of India at the session of the Intergovernmental Group on Tea.

“This being the first year of official celebration, Tea Board has planned a series of programmes through various platforms for observing this special day”, Tea Board’s Director of Tea Development (DTD) S Soundararajan said.

As part of this, Tea Board has announced a special auction of tea manufactured with high quality green leaf plucked on May 21.

Titled ‘limited edition endeavour’, the programme invites planters to pluck the highest quality tea of two leaves a bud in the fields across the country on May 21 and manufacture it in factories on May 22.

The DTD said that these teas will have to be packed in paper sacks for offering in special auction. The maximum number of packages in a lot has to be five and a factory can offer only five lots at the maximum for all categories of teas – orthodox or CTC.

He said that both estate and bought leaf factories can participate in this programme.

“A special auction will be conducted in all the auction centres in the country in June and a percentage of sale proceeds will be shared with relief funds or as decided by the Committee to be set up for this purpose”, Soundararajan said.

He asked all those desirous of participating to contact the auction centres by May 19.

He also asked the participants to follow the safety norms against COVID-19.

He said that this programme gains significance because quality is the prime factor which upholds India in the global tea market.

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