Tea Board aims at Trustea stamp for 51 per cent of production

KOLKATA: The Tea Board today said 51 per cent of India's tea production will be certified by Trustea by 2017, indicating adoption of sustainable production practices by gardens.

"In the next three years, Trustea envisions certifying around 51 per cent of India's tea production," Tea Board chairman Siddharth said.

He said the Tea Board had last year announced the programme that would certify sustainable grown tea to make it acceptable to domestic as well as international consumers.

Incorporating globally accepted sustainability principles, Trustea was a sustainable tea code based on Indian realities. By December 2014, the Trustea programme, which was voluntary by nature, would certify a capacity of 50 million kilograms, he said. Siddharth said that the Tea Board had made mandatory adoption of the Plant Protection Code (PPC) formulated by it.

"All the plantations should follow the PPC as well as the Integrated Pest Management programme," he said.

Adoption of PPC code would indicate adoption of good agricultural practices by the planters and also only permissible pesticides were used during the production process.