The Tea Board of India plans to roll out a new electronic tea auction mechanism in Coimbatore and Coonoor next month.
Executive Director of Tea Board of India, Coonoor, M. Balaji, told The Hindu that the new system was on trial for three months now and four mock sessions were held, apart from a series of training programmes.
The feedback from the participants was incorporated wherever feasible.
“The system will be rolled out maybe in the first week of January. Initially, it will be in Coonoor and Coimbatore,” Mr. Balaji said.
“When the system stabilises, it will be rolled out pan India,” he added.
A press release from the board said that it had entrusted with the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, the task of making the tea e-auction system robust and improve the price discovery mechanism. The team made an exhaustive study on the existing tea e-auction module and suggested a new electronic tea auction mechanism based on the Japanese auction module.
In an effort to make the system user-friendly and to address the finer aspects of the operation of the system, a few mock sessions were held with the stakeholders associated with South Indian auction centres.
A hands-on training programme on the Japanese Auction model is on at Coonoor for about 150 participants on December 21 and 22, the press release said.
