Tea board to soon come with factory code to regulate quality

GUWAHATI: Tea Board of India will soon come up with a factory code. Tea Board Chairman, MGVK Bhanu, who was in Guwahati on Friday to attend the interaction programme of Federation of Industries for Northeast Region (FINER) said the factory code which is expected to developed in another six months will stipulate the manufacturing practice and hygiene standards for factories.

The code which will be applicable for factories both in the organised and unorganized sector. The chairman informed that tea board is simplifying the procedures. "We are working on a system where licenses and subsidies will be online and there will be hardly any paper work. This job is expected to be completed in another six months."

He added that effort is on to ensure that all Tea board operations are paperless and involvement of human element in the process is lessened. "We are hopeful of achieving this task in another 12 to 18 months time."

India roughly produces 1150 million kgs (mkgs) of tea annually while 30 percent of this production comes from STGs.