Building a Wider
Horizon With Labour
By Shalini Nair and Aashish Aryan NEW DELHI - The launch of pan-India electronic auction for tea will be delayed by one-two months, Tea Board of India Chairman Santosh Kumar Sarangi said today. The auction was earlier set to begin from the end of June. "There are some teething problems amongst few of our stakeholders, which is delaying the auction," Sarangi said on the sidelines of Primary Producers Societies Assembly here today. Another problem he pointed out was the absence of producing units for the small tea growers, which is keeping them from participating in the auction directly. "Once that problem is solved, even the smallest growers should be able to take part in auctions," Sarangi added. Having tea units is mandatory to participate in the auction. The chairman, however, said he is sure that the pan-India e-auction for tea will be rolled out within one to two months. Last month, the Tea Board of India had initiated countrywide electronic auction to enable buyers from one auction centre to participate in bidding at other auction centres. Earlier, a buyer registered with one centre could buy or bid in auctions only from that particular centre. E-auctions would help sellers tap more markets. The tea board expects to auction around 540 mln kg of tea under the new process. Rules for the new auction also mandate that a buyer cannot cancel his or her order once the bid is accepted.End
