EU tea buyers go organic

German Tea Council and European Union has asked Tea Board to furnish with details of the requisite level of pesticides in the tea being exported.

T C Choudhury, director (research and development) Tea Board said that they had sent questionnaire seeking details of the chemicals used in India.

Choudhury clarified that the tea samples had been tested in various laboratories but, were found to be well within the maximum residue limits (MRL).

The exact reason behind the sudden enquiry from German Tea Council and European Union was unknown. Choudhury said, it could be a policy on their part.Indian exports around 30-32 million kg to the European Union.

Choudhury was speaking on the sidelines of a seminar on organic tea. He said that though the market for organic tea was conservative at this juncture, Tea Board would facilitate growing of organic tea and planned to provider financial assistance for obtaining organic certification, which was an expensive proposition. Without certification it was believed that it was unviable to realise the cost or organic farming.

At present, 0.5 per cent of the total production of around 850 million kg of tea was organic.

The essence of the seminar was that pesticides had become a national hazard and organic farming was the need of the day. The seminar was organised by Jalinga Tea Estate.

Jalinga claimed to be the largest organic tea estate in the world. The Jalinga tea estates had been tested at both government of India's pesticide residue laboratory, Pune as well as Eurofins, Germany.

The test results certified that the teas complied to the pesticide residue levels for organic teas.

Jalinga Tea Estate had now launched Jalinga Naturorganic teas in various consumer packs starting with 250 gm, 100 gm, and 25 tea bags. The pricing of these tea packs was at par with conventional teas.