STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The Tea Board of India will set up outlets at railway stations to boost its consumption and provide a better marketing option for the beleaguered tea industry.
Sources said Union Commerce and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal recently held a review meeting in New Delhi and chalked out a few action plans for the commodity boards (tea, coffee and spices).
Goyal has asked all the three commodity boards to put up stalls at important railway stations and sell tea and coffee in the waiting lounge.
Welcoming the move, a tea planter said there could not be a better place than the railway stations to promote tea. He said people from all sections of society come to railway stations, and companies would be very much interested to put up their stalls to promote their products.
“There are many people associated with the tea industry who travel by train from Guwahati to Upper Assam regularly. So, railway stations will be the best location for promoting tea,” the planter said.
According to the planter, tea outlets would be perfect for Guwahati Dibrugarh, Tinsukia as well as Mariani, Dimapur and Lumding.
The recent review meeting also called for designing a world-class marketing campaign which will help promote the India brand and story for commodities like tea, coffee and spices. The campaign may be run through a corpus fund.
On the issues of branding and marketing, the Tea Board of India is preparing a logo of Assam tea. Plans are on the anvil to open Assam tea lounges in all cities across the country.