Govt asks tea industry to focus on quality issues

The government today asked the tea industry to focus more on quality issues as the whole world is focussing on it.
"The entire world is focussing on the quality of Indian tea. So the Indian tea industry should focus on this aspect," said R R Rashmi, Additional Secretary in Commerce and Industry Ministry, at Tea Research Association's AGM held here today.
Rashmi said there is a need to monitor the level of minimum residue limit (MRL) of pesticides in tea closely.
So far out of the 35 chemicals identified for use by Tea Board, standards for seven of them had already been fixed.

He also said that the Commerce Ministry along with the Health Ministry is working towards harmonisation of standards both at the domestic and overseas levels.
His views came against the backdrop of the recent Greenpeace report which said that Indian tea contained dangerous levels of pesticides which are harmful for human consumption.

Rashmi also laid stress on the importance of exports of tea.
"So far, the India tea industry did not give much focus on exports. Large number of players are focussed on the domestic market. There is a need to re-focus on exports," he said.
Regarding small growers, Rashmi said there is no need to look at them with suspicion. "We need to help them as issues of livelihood are involved," he added.