By IANS,
Kolkata : Following in the footsteps of the Guwahati auction centre, the Tea Board of India expects the Kolkata auction to make a complete switchover from manual to electronic system by April.
“While the auction centres in the south have shifted to electronic mode some time back, the centres in West Bengal and Assam had lagged behind, and so Guwahati becoming 100 percent electronic is a positive development,” Tea Board chairman Basudeb Banerjee told reporters here Friday on the sidelines of a conference on the North East Investment Summit.
Tea auction at the Guwahati auction centre in Assam went fully electronic this week.
The auctioneers in Kolkata, the country’s largest auction centre, have given a commitment to the Tea Board that they will gradually increase the share of tea routed through e-auction from January onwards and abolish the out-cry system by April, Banerjee said.
Of the total 900 million kg of tea produced in India, close to 500 million kg are sold through auction centres in Kolkata, Siliguri, and Guwahati for North Indian tea, and through Coonoor, Coimbatore and Kochi for tea produced in South India.
The auction centres in south India and in Kolkata began e-auction in May. But the move faced resistance from sellers as they have largely restricted the quantity of tea sold through e-auction in Kolkata.