Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha on Thursday inaugurated the state’s first tea auction centre at Pandit Nehru Complex in Gurkhabasti, aiming to lower tea marketing costs and make it easier for local producers to reach buyers.
These include tea garden owners, manufacturers, bought-leaf factory operators, workers, traders, and small growers. Tripura Tea Development Corporation Limited (TTDCL) chairman Samir Ranjan Ghosh said nearly 60 per cent of the state’s tea production is marketed through auction centres outside Tripura. A consignment currently takes around 44 days to pass through the existing marketing process, Ghosh said. The corporation expects the Agartala centre to cut this period by about 40 per cent.
Ghosh said TTDCL had held discussions with buyers and brokerage firms in Kolkata and Guwahati to encourage them to participate in auctions at Agartala. Several established firms and buyers have expressed interest in the new facility, he said. TTDCL managing director Rajesh Kumar Das said the centre was designed to bring different sections of the tea industry onto a common marketing platform.
