Inclusion of tea in ration packets raises demand

With the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government classifying tea in three categories – essential commodity, food item and agriculture produce – the demand for both black and green teas has increased during this lockdown period as the ration packets supplied to the poor contain black tea.

Tea factories in the Nilgiris have donated large volumes of tea to NGOs engaged in supplying essential items to the migrant labour and daily wage earners who have been rendered jobless following the lockdown.

“We have purchased and handed over 100 kg of tea packets to the coordinator of District Social Welfare Office,” Branch Manager of Innovative Microfinance for Poverty Alleviation and Community Transformation (IMPACT) K Ganesh said.

“This was an important item of the 14 dry ration materials worth ₹2 lakh we have donated to the district administration for distribution to migrant labourers and daily wagers,” he said.

“We are donating liquid turmeric green tea manufactured by us to all our workers and their families every day to strengthen their immunity,” G Udayakumar, Director, Avataa Beverages, said.

“We are getting orders from many countries for this tea and are working on increasing the production,” he noted.

Many NGOs are buying teas from factories and supplying liquid tea with biscuits to health workers and police personnel engaged in fighting Covid-19 in the Nilgiris.