[Assam] Kenya gives Assam plucking lessons

[Pradip Kumar Datta]

        Kenya gives Assam plucking lessons
    A STAFF REPORTER      Guwahati, Nov. 16: From Kenya to Assam — the mantra is to improve plucking standards to produce good quality tea. 
  This was also the message that the delegation of small tea growers from Assam got after visiting Kenya last month. 
  Tea Board (North East executive director) Chandrajit Saikia led the delegation. The small tea growers’ delegation from Assam is represented by All Assam Small Tea Growers’ Association vice-president Dinesh Kumar Sarmah and Assam Bought Leaf Manufacturers’ Association chairman Kanakeswar Sensowa. 
  “We have to become more organised and have a structure like the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KPTA). This is a private organisation that looks after the small tea growers. Such a body has to be set up here to help growers of India,” Sarmah said. 
  Sarmah said the association ensures that nobody accepts tea of bad quality and there was no question of its members selling bad tea. “The quality is more or less uniform in Kenya rather than in India, where there are both good and bad varieties,” Sarmah said, adding that the KPTA also looks after marketing. 
  The Kenya Tea Development Agency has 54 bought leaf factories under it and has 4.8 lakh small tea growers under it. It also has 13 departments, including agricultural services, business development, strategic planning and development.
  Saikia said the plucking standards are the same all over Kenya, which helps ensure good and uniform quality of tea. 
  “Climatic conditions are favourable and the country can produce organic tea naturally,” Saikia added. 
  According to rough estimates, small tea growers contribute around 100 million kg of the total tea production of Assam. Saikia said there is a need to improve advisory services to small tea growers here. Such services are not comparable to the ones in Kenya. 
  He said the best facet of the Kenyan tea industry is that 98 per cent of the tea is sold through auctions, which ensures complete transparency. Teas from 11 countries are sold through the Mombassa tea auction centre. 
  Assam Bought Leaf Manufacturers’ Association chairman Kanakeswar Sensowa said the handling of tea is very good and the transportation system excellent so that tea leaves do not get destroyed. 
  “Tea leaves here are just packed and dumped in a small vehicle, irrespective of its capacity,” Sensowa said, adding that there are no middlemen involved in Kenya.
  The aim of the tour was to familiarise the representatives of the industry with practices adopted in Kenya, which have thrown a strong challenge to Indian tea. Kenya produces the same CTC which is produced by India. 
  The biggest advantage which Kenya has over India is in the cost of production, which is 30 per cent less than India’s.

 
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