Dimapur: The annual general body meeting of the Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers Association (CISTA) was held on February 22 at Jalpaiguri, West Bengal. Representative of tea growing states from various parts of India attended the meeting.
The representatives from Nagaland were D. Hukiye Kibami, President, All Nagaland Small Tea Grower’s Association (ANSTGA), Er Inavito Yepthomi, Press Secretary, ANSTGA, Tonika Kibami, member and Arha Phesao member, ANSTGA.
ANSTGA Press Secretary, Er Inavito Yepthomi in a press release said that during the session, the house discussed and deliberated on various agenda. The new executive committee member of CISTA were constituted where D Hukiye Kiba, President, ANSTGA was also elected for the next three year.
The annual general body meeting was followed by India International Small Tea Grower's Conference on February 24 at Jalpaiguri Tea Auction Centre organised by CISTA and supported by Tea Board of India where in Rachmat Bardruddin, Chairman, Tea Board of Indonesia was the chief guest of the mega event. The delegates from other tea growing foreign countries were Mozambique, Indonesia, Srilanka, Bangaladesh and Nepal. The sessional chairperson of the conference was G Boriah, Former Director, Tea Board of India & Advisor, Small Tea Growers Development Directorate. Some of the keynote speaker of the conference were S Sundararajan, Director, Tea Development, Tea Board of India who lectured on small tea sector in India, Dr Souvik Sen, Tea Research Association on sustainable quality in small tea sector, Er. DK Kushwaha, Project Scientist, IIT, Kharagpur on mini tea factory-it's viability and R. Suchanti, Director, J Thomas on marketing of small tea growers tea. The conference concluded with the discussion on International Small Tea holding scenario.
