Work on to resume tea auction from Jalpaiguri centre in April: Official

jalpaiguri: All efforts are being made to resume the auction from the Jalpaiguri tea auction centre in April. The auction will resume in this centre after 7 years. Approximately 200 million kg of tea produced in the Terai-Dooars region will be sold from this centre.

Talking to the Millennium Post, Purajit Baksi Gupta, Vice Chairman of North Bengal tea auction committee, said: ‘’We are scheduled to open the Jalpaiguri Tea Auction centre in April. We are working relentlessly on this. We are holding regular meetings regarding this to ensure the resumption of the operation of the auction centre in April. The next meeting will be conducted on March 19, 2023.’’

At a meeting of the Tea Board at the Tea Auction Centre in Jalpaiguri on March 13, 2023, it was decided that tea auctions will resume in Jalpaiguri from April after having remained closed for the last seven years.

That meeting was held in the presence of the Deputy Director of the Indian Tea Board, tea sellers, buyers and brokers. Different issues relating to tea auctions were discussed in that meeting. It has been decided that a new committee will be formed with the sellers, buyers and brokers to look into the matter.

The Jalpaiguri tea auction centre was launched in 2005. Auctions were conducted from this centre till 2015. Since then the centre has remained closed. Over the years there have been demands from different quarters to reopen the centre.