Darjeeling tea is a global favourite. Yet its neighbour, the Dooars tea, remains in obscurity.

Stakeholders of the north Bengal tea industry congregated at the Dooars Tea Conclave at a private resort in Lataguri on the fringes of the Gorumara National Park in Jalpaiguri on Saturday to brainstorm ways to promote the Dooars tea.

Bijoygopal Chakraborty, the general secretary of the Jalpaiguri District Small Tea Growers Association that hosted the event, said though around 240 million kilos of tea is produced in the Dooars, the same brew is not sold in domestic and international markets as Dooars tea but as common CTC tea.

“At times, it is even blended with other varieties of CTC teas. We want this practice to change. The tea produced here should be branded as Dooars tea so that tea drinkers can identify the brew as unique and from this region like the Darjeeling and Assam tea,” he said.

Last year, the Dooars region, where the first tea estate was established at Gajoldoba (where the Teesta Barrage is located) in 1874, had produced 237.71 million kilos. This year, the production from January to October has been 179.50 million kilos.

“At the conclave, we also pointed out that this year marks 150 years of tea cultivation in the Dooars. It is high time that we work together to develop the Dooars tea brand to augment the domestic and international market for the brew that is produced in the Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts,” said Rajat Roy Karjee, president of the association.

Shama Parveen, the district magistrate of Jalpaiguri who attended the event, elaborated on the initiatives taken by the state government for tea estates and the tea
population.

“A slew of social welfare schemes have been extended in the tea estates and the tea population is getting the benefits. We are ready to extend all help to the industry to develop the brand. Such an initiative is necessary for the improvement of the tea industry,” she said.

In the course of the conclave, experts in technical and business sessions spoke on various aspects of the Dooars tea industry, while underscoring certain efforts that have been put in for the small tea growers as well as the tea estates. In the Dooars belt, the small tea sector contributes around 64 percent of the total tea. There are around 35,000 small tea growers in this region.

“The tea board has a major role to play here. Being the apex government agency, the board should promote the Dooars tea. Only a logo to identify the tea like teas of other regions, will not work,” said a veteran tea planter at the conclave.

Subir Hazra, a deputy director of the board posted in Siliguri, mentioned that they are working on certain schemes and projects for the development of the industry. “The tea board hosts different events to popularize the Indian brew. We will see that the tea from Dooars is promoted appropriately,” said the official of the tea board.