On the eve of International Tea Day on May 21, the Jorhat e-auction platform for tea was started on May 20 by the Tea Board in association with mjunction services.
The Jorhat e-auction platform is an initiative of Tea Board with mjunction services being the implementing agency.
One of India’s largest B2B e-commerce companies, mjunction is a 50:50 joint venture promoted by SAIL and Tata Steel.
Till recently there were seven tea auction centres in India – Kolkata, Siliguri, Jalpaiguri, Guwahati, Coimbatore, Coonoor and Kochi. Jorhat is the latest addition.
Assam produces about 716 million kg of tea annually which is 52 per cent of the country’s tea production.
The six contiguous districts of Assam – Golaghat, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Charaideo, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia, produce about 450 million kg of tea annually.
The first tea auction centre in Assam was set up at Guwahati in the year 1970.
In these last 50 years, the tea production of Assam increased three times and hence the people of upper Assam have been demanding a new age auction centre at Jorhat, which has finally materialized.
Welcoming the move, Assam Legislative Assembly Speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami said, “With this the long felt need of setting up of a Tea Auction Centre at tea city Jorhat has been fulfilled. I sincerely express my gratitude to the Tea Board of India for addressing the long demand of the people of upper Assam in general and Jorhat in particular.”
