The new Jorhat tea e-auction platform is expected to commence functioning from February 2020. The Tea Board of India has commenced e-registration of buyers and sellers to help them join the platform.

According to Arun Kumar Ray, Deputy Chairman, Tea Board, the platform will offer several value-added services to the buyers including a central warehousing facility and logistics partners to ensure doorstep delivery of teas purchased.

The Tea Board had inked an MoU with mjunction Ltd, a joint venture of SAIL and Tata Steel, for the platform. There are six centres which auction tea through the electronic auction system at present. Each of these centres is run by a separate committee which acts as an auction organiser, using the Tea Board platform.

“There will be several value-added services. There will be a central warehouse at Jorhat where the commodity will be kept after auction. This will help bring down transportation cost. We will also have logistics partner who can ensure that the teas purchased are delivered to the buyers’ doorstep. This will help bring down the hassle for a buyer and the cost will also be lower,” Ray said at a press conference here on Thursday.

This apart, Tea Board will appoint third party tea testers for neutral testing. Currently testing, which is based on physical appearance of tea, is done by brokers. Based on the testing the valuation is arrived at.

The country had produced close to 1,350 million kg (mkg) of tea in 2018-19. Nearly 600 mkg of tea estimated at a total value of around ₹8,400 crore was sold on the auction platform last year. The new auction platform at Jorhat is expected to give a push to market-driven price discovery, sources said.

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