Leash on winter tea plucking

TT, Siliguri: The Tea Board of India has issued a directive banning plucking of tealeaves from December 15 in Bengal to ensure that no low quality product is made during the winter.

No fresh tealeaves bloom during the winter. However, a section of people used to make tea out of the remaining leaves which would eventually lead to low quality tea. Such brew, when merchandised, would eventually affect the name and reputation of our tea,," said a tea planter based in Siliguri.

That is why the tea board, in its directive, has come up with separate cut-off dates for plucking, processing and packaging of tea for all tea producing states of the country.

"For Bengal, the last date of plucking was December 15 while Sunday was the last date for processing the tealeaves. By Monday (December 17), all the tea producing units of the state will have to send a declaration to the tea board that they have stopped manufacturing tea," said a source.

The units, however, can pack and dispatch tea to stores till December 27 (for CTC teas) and till December 31 (for orthodox and green teas).