Tea Board cracks down on plucking leaves with knives

KOCHI: Tea Board has banned plucking of tea leaves using knives from March 10 with a view to improve the quality of tea produced in several estates. The practice has been continuing in parts Nilgiris and Kerala.

According to the board, the tea leaves should be plucked using the fingers to preserve the quality of tea and it has been trying to create awareness about this among the tea plantation workers. “I have been visiting the plantations and urging people to stop the practice. We have held several meetings.

On Thursday, we are organising a meeting at Coonoor to educate the workers,” says RD Nazeem, executive director of Tea Board. The practice is prevalent in about 10 % of the estates in Nilgiris and parts of Wayanad. Such type of plucking results in coarse leaves, which are of poor quality, fetching low prices.

Tea Board has issued strict instructions that if it finds tea estates resorting to such practice, the area could be blacklisted. The board has also cautioned the tea manufacturers from buying such coarse leaves. A large part of such buyers are from the bought leaf segment, which constitute 40% of the South Indian tea production.

To keep a watch on the tea estates, a committee comprising leaf procurement societies, self-help groups etc will be formed. The Tea Board officials have been going round the plantations advising the workers to resort to hand plucking in the last few months.

This initiative is part of Tea Board’s efforts to upgrade the quality of tea produced particularly in South India. The Golden Leaf India Awards: Southern Tea Competition, a joint programme of United Planters’ Association of Southern India (Upasi) and Tea Board, is another step in this direction.

The final tea tasting session and award ceremony of the third edition is slated to be held at Kochi on March 22. To strengthen presence in export markets, Tea Board is also coming out with regional logos for six varieties of South Indian tea.