Minister of state for commerce and industry Jairam Ramesh (left) with Tea Board chairman Basudeb Banerjee in Calcutta on Sunday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, March 18: The Union cabinet is set to announce a scheme for ailing tea gardens, and the workers’ cooperative at Kannan Devan Hills Plantation Co Pvt Ltd (KDHP) of Tata Tea will be the model for the closed and sick gardens. This was announced by minister of state for commerce and industry Jairam Ramesh.

“Many trade unions proposals have come to us for the reopening of the closed tea gardens. However, we feel the Kannan Devan model is a sustainable way of bringing back closed gardens to life. A substantial stake in the company belongs to the tea garden employees, from the manager right down to the worker. Their success is for all to see and I have already sent the Kannan Devan model to the Kerala chief minister for reviving the nine closed gardens in the state. I shall also forward the same to the Bengal chief minister,” said Ramesh here today.

There are 20 closed gardens in Kerala, around 16 in Bengal and two in Assam.

“Kannan Devan, with 14 estates spread across 57,000 hectares, announced a dividend of 14 per cent last year. This year too it is expected to close ahead of the last time. The gardens have come a long way from their distressed situation two to three years ago,” said Indian Tea Association chairman and Tata Tea managing director Percy Signaporia.

Orthodox sales

The Indian Tea Association will in a week’s time prepare a report on how to increase the production of orthodox tea to 120 million kg from 80 million kg in the next five years.

“This is essential if India has to reclaim its international market. If one includes the production from India, 60 per cent of the global market is orthodox tea and 40 per cent CTC. Even traditionally strong export markets like Russia are heavily tilted towards orthodox tea,” Ramesh said.

The existing subsidy for the orthodox version will also be redesigned to widen its base.

Tea delegations

In a week from now, Tea Board chairman Basudeb Banerjee will lead a delegation of Indian tea companies to Egypt to strengthen the market in that country.

The Tea Board will assist the industry to identify the location for the marketing centre in Cairo.

“Though the centre will run on a public-private-partnership model, the Tea Board will bear the initial cost of setting up 75 per cent of the rental in the first year, 50 per cent in the second and 331/3 per cent in the third year,” Ramesh said.

Between April 14 and April 21, another delegation will go to Pakistan.

Exports to Pakistan, which reached 16 million kg from single digit figures this year, is expected to go up to 30 million kg in the next three to five years.

Alternate cropping

Use of land in tea estates for alternate cropping and multiple revenue generating channels is one of the key risk mitigating devices which has been stressed upon in the Eleventh plan.

The Tea Board has also roped in Isro to do a remote sensing of the area under tea to plot the alternate activities.