Round the year, they engage themselves in plantation and selling so as to serve connoisseurs the cuppa that truly cheers. And now for the next three days they will be seen on a different field — playing cricket, tennis, golf and squash.

Leading tea planters from India (Darjeeling, Siliguri, Guwahati, Cochin, Coonoor, Coimbatore), Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Mombasa (Kenya) and tea companies including Mcleod Russel India, Tata Global Beverages, Apeejay Surrendra Corporate Services, Chamong Tee Exports, Goodricke Group, J Thomas & Co, Jay Shree Tea & Industries, Luxmi Tea Co, Dhunseri Petrochem & Tea, NSEIT, Hindustan Unilever have congregated in Kolkata to be part of the 125th year celebration of The Calcutta Tea Traders Association (CTTA), the oldest surviving auction centre in

the world.

Sangeeta Kichlu, chairperson of CTTA, told Financial Chronicle, “As CTTA emblem comprises three interlocked rings personifying the trinity of buyers, brokers and sellers of tea as its constituent members, nothing could have been more befitting than organising a fun-filled confluence of buyers, brokers and sellers to celebrate the 125th year of CTTA. Besides sports and games, there will be river cruise and serious business sessions as well.”

The CTTA has seven brokers (auctioneers), 437 buyers and 700 sellers among its members. There are 58 warehouses with a total area of 1.8 million sq ft, which are registered with the CTTA for storage of teas intended for sale through the Kolkata Auctions.

Kichlu, who is also the vice-president of BK Birla Group’s tea flagship - Jay Shree Tea & Industries, said the first teas, at the centre, were seen coming under the hammer way back in 1861. And then CTTA was constituted in 1886, primarily to organise public tea auctions in Kolkata (then Calcutta). “125 years down the road, we can claim that it is not only the largest auction centre in the country, but the only one where the entire range of Indian teas are on offer, from Darjeeling to Nilgiris,” she said. The electronic auction of tea was also introduced in Kolkata in 2009 for all varieties of tea except Darjeeling teas, which are still sold in the manual outcry method.

ritwikmukherjee

@mydigitalfc.com