The Bharat auction system for sale and purchase of tea in auction centres will be implemented in north India only after conducting adequate mock sessions and consultations with stakeholders, Tea Board India chairman Saurav Pahari said on Thursday.
Amid concerns expressed by a section of the tea industry over the unified auction system, Pahari said pan-India implementation of the system is a mandate given to the Tea Board. However, on implementation in North India, he said, “Rest assured that nothing will be done without consulting all the stakeholders.” Pahari was speaking at the 125th AGM of the Calcutta Tea Traders Association (CTTA).
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The Tea Board came up with rules for the pan-India Bharat auction format last year, aiming at better price discovery, lower transaction costs, and good quality of tea sold through the system.
The system has already been rolled out at auction centres in South India, but resulted in concern from a section of the industry.
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CTTA chairman Anish Bhansali, speaking at the AGM, said, “With the implementation of Bharat auction, we will have to bid goodbye to the English electronic auction, which in my opinion is totally uncalled for … After many years of practice and implementing careful and clinical changes, just when all the stakeholders had come to terms with the English e-auction, we are now being forced into another form of auction.”
He said the last two years had taught the industry that fair price discovery has nothing to do with the type of auction or software being used; it only depends on quality of produce, competition and the demand-supply dynamics. “We are one of the few industries which boast of a universal platform where all the produce finds its way to a central point of selling, the auction centres, which have been managed by yardsticks evolved to perfection over the years. I see no merit in hiring expensive consultants deciding how to sell our produce when we have many stalwarts in our industry who can do better…,” Bhansali said.