NE Tea Association bats for exports via Bangladesh waterwaysThe North Eastern Tea Association (NETA) underscored the shortage of coal and urea for the tea industry, and urged the government to allow use of the Bangladesh waterways for exports to support planters. Addressing the 20th Biennial General Meeting of NETA here, its Chairman Sunil Jallan said the present scenario of the industry is quite gloomy.

The government can extend its helping hand only when the members come forward with doable solutions, Jallan said. He said the major issues faced by the during 2021 were shortages of coal and urea, besides challenges like Climate-change”>Climate Change, low land and labour productivity, demand-supply imbalance, low per capita tea consumption, frequent power cuts and natural gas supply to only 50 per cent factories out of about 800 units.

The annual requirement of urea for the tea plantations of Assam, including big and small growers, across the Brahmaputra and Barak valleys is 1,13,200 metric tonnes.