From Saurav Borah
GUWAHATI: Orthodox tea from Meghalaya will make its debut at the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre next week, a significant development set to bring cheer to the industry and inspire planters to raise the bar further to make high quality teas.
Sources in the industry said 623.60kg orthodox tea under the “Meghalaya Tea” mark would be sold by tea auctioneer, J Thomas during Sale 35 of the auction scheduled from next Tuesday.
The tea categorised under four grades – Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe One (TGFOP1), TGFOP, Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (GFOP) and Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe (FBOP) – have been manufactured at the Arengh Tea Factory set up at Rongram, about 14km from Tura, in West Garo Hills back in 1997.
Godfrey Nongbak Arengh, the director of Arengh Tea Industry Pvt Ltd, told The Shillong Times on Tuesday that he started making orthodox tea only last month and was planning to send another lot of the same grade of similar quantity for next week’s sale here.
“I have been making CTC (crush, tear, curl) teas for over a decade now but started making orthodox teas only last month in my 10-hectare garden. Till date, I would have made around 5,000kg orthodox tea. The focus is on quality and I expect good prices at the auction sale next week,” Arengh said.
The tea garden, located about 4km away from the factory, produces about 2lakh kg CTC teas annually. Currently, there are 18 workers engaged in the garden and 25 employees in the factory.
Orthodox teas have good demand in the export market. Of late, there has been a growing demand for not just good quality teas but specialty teas, as the beverage is also considered a health drink.
Only recently, specialty tea (“gold tea” from an Upper Assam garden) created history by fetching Rs 39,001 per kg at the auction centre here which is the highest ever price fetched through any registered auction so far.
Arengh says that he plans to convert his garden into a fully organic estate after two years give that there is a growing demand for such varieties in markets of the country and overseas.
Over 2000 hectares of land in Meghalaya is under tea cultivation, primarily located in Ri Bhoi and West Garo Hills. Over the past few years, the state government has prioritised production of organic tea in an effort to penetrate niche segments in the markets.