Tea Board of India, IIPM plan productivity council

With a view to increasing tea productivity, the Tea Board of India and Indian Institute of Plantation Management (IIPM) will set up a Tea Planters' Productivity Council (TPC) in 12 districts in India.

The councils would be aimed at disseminating best practices in the tea industry, and boosting human resource development (HRD), said Basudeb Banerjee, chairman, Tea Board of India in Kolkata on Thursday.

For the 11th Five Year Plan, Rs 50 crore has been sanctioned as the HRD budget for the tea industry, out of which Rs 37.50 crore will be spent on education and health of the employees and Rs 12.50 crore on training purposes. Of this, 60 per cent of the money will go towards training of the workers, and 40 per cent will be for management. The setting of TPC will require Rs 1.25 crore.

This apart, the Tea Board is also planning to set up tea parks Siliguri and Kolkata.

This year, the board has set a target of exporting 205 million kg tea, against 189 million kg last fiscal.

"We expect to achieve an export target of at least 200 million kg," said Banerjee.

The government is pushing export of CTC tea countries like Iran and Egypt. In this regard, an Indian delegation is also going to Iran with a group of exporters in the coming days.

In Iran, the government is hopeful of exporting 11 million kg tea, while in Egypt the target is 15 million kg.

In Pakistan also the export this fiscal is likely to be about 12 million kg.