A Study in Selected Estate Owned Tea Factories of Assam, India
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ISSN: 2347-3215 Volume 2 Number 12 (December-2014) pp. 130-135 www.ijcrar.com Quality Considerations in Manufacturing of Tea: A study in selected Estate Owned Tea Factories of Assam, India Rashida Tahira Noorain* Assistant Professor, Assam Rajiv Gandhi University of Co-operative Management, 2nd Floor, SBI Main Branch Building, Barua Complex, Near Kakoty Garage, A T Road, Sivasagar, Assam. Pin- 785 640, India *Corresponding author KEYWORDS A B S T R A C T Manufacturing, Tea is the most sought after non-alcoholic beverage in the world. Yet for Plucking, India, tea is a culture. India is the largest producer, consumer and exporter of Estate Owned tea volume wise. Assam contributes to half of the total tea exports of India. Tea Factory, Tea forms an integral part of the line-line of India in general and Assam in Quality particular. The present study is an attempt to explore the procedures following during processing of tea in the factories. The primary focus in understanding the procedures in the factories have been through the quality considerations during processing at the factories. The study has been conducted in the five districts of the Upper Brahmaputra valley in Assam. The study has brought into light varied aspects demanding immediate attention of the Tea regulatory bodies of the industry and the masses as well. Introduction Tea is the most popular non alcoholic benefits of tea in improving bone mineral beverage drank all around the globe. Tea, as i density and thereby contributing negatively defined by the Tea Act , 1953 refers to the to osteoporosis. Minerals like potassium, plant Camellia Sinensis (L) O. Kuntze It zinc, and manganese present in tea boost includes all varieties of the product known vitamin C retention. Tea aids in digestions commercially as tea made from the leaves of and lowers cholesterol levels. It reduces the plant Camellia Sinesis (L) O. Kuntze. cancers of skin, lung, stomach and bone. The leaves of the said plant are processed, the marketed form of which is most Chow and Krammer(1990)iv refers to the popularly known as Tea . discovery of tea by Shen Nong. Shen Nong is termed as one of the three mystical early Tea contains several vitamins and minerals sovereigns. There are references as well of necessary for normal functioning of the ii iii an Indian monk, Dharuma, who used to human body . Asopa (2007) suggests the d e m o n s t r a t e the benefits of meditation, 130 meditated for nine years staring at a single costs of poor quality. Gryna et al. (2007) wall. Once he fell asleep. In order to ensure defines this as, the annual monetary loss of that his eyelids do not droop again, he cut products and processes that are not them off and threw away. A plant grew at achieving their quality objectives . the place where his eyelids fell; the leaves of which when boiled and drank, drove away Review of Existing Literature sleep. Thus was born the magical plant of tea. a) Okinado Owuor(2006)viii suggested total theaflavin level and Black tea There are four major tea producing states in aroma quality and Plain Black tea India viz. Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu aroma quality parameter as and Kerala. CTC tea constitutes two-thirds determinants of tea quality. of the Indian tea production.Assam produces b) Bhattcharya et al.ix refers to flavor, around 500 million kg of tea annually, aroma, color, and strength as the which constitute 53% of the total Indian tea major quality attributes of tea . production. During 2007, tea produced in c) A study was conducted by Bhuyan Assam had been 511.89 million kgv. Of this et.al.,(2009)x to identify the around 70 million kg is being exported. biochemical data for quality There are 780 registered big tea estates, 153 assessment of CTC tea where it was bought leaf factories, 1 cooperative factory observed that the tea in the and 2927 registered Small Tea Growers Brahmaputra valley had highest (STG), though the total number small tea theaflavin (TF), thearubigin (TR), growers are more than 43,000. Assam tea is brightness (BR) and total colour known for its strong liquor, and rich taste (TC) and low crude fibre content and colour. (CFC) and total polyphenol (TPP) followed by Dooars region and Quality Barak valley. d) According to Kamunya et.al.,(2009)xi Quality is not a new management the type of tea quality is depended on philosophy. It is as old as the Scientific the tea cultivar which the raw Management of Taylor. References to material for manufacture. quality may be found in Taylor s (1910) e) Jayaganesh and Venkatesan advocacy of attaining performance by (2010)xiihave found a positive coaching the workersvi. Taylorism was more correlation of use of magnesium in of importance to the stakeholders, may be the soil and theaflavins in tea leading considered as the perspective of customers. to increase in tea quality. According to Frederick W. Taylor, The f) Sood, Jaggi, Kumar, Ravindranath & principal object of management should be to Shankar (2004)xiii has found CTC to secure the maximum prosperity for the have more pesticide than Green tea employer, coupled with maximum possibly because of being subjected prosperity for the employee (Taylor, F.,W, to initial heat treatment and more 1947)vii. water loss (dehydration) due to higher temperature of air (60 75 C) As has been viewed by many a Quality guru, than withering in black tea. the indicators of quality is customer g) HACCP has been established as a satisfaction, fitness for use or conformance benchmark in international food to specifications. Costs of quality refer to the tradexiv. HACCP is a risk 131 management system that identifies H02: The Estate Owned Tea and evaluates and controls hazards Factories Bought Leaf Factories related to food safety along the food perform requisite measures for supply chain. HACCP is now a part maintaining the quality of tea of ISO 22000 standard. produced therein. h) According to Roberts (1962), and Biswas et. al., (1971), theaflavins are Methodology of the study critical in determining the cup quality and brightness of black tea a. Sampling Unit Estate Owned tea and according to Takeo (1974), factories in Golaghat, Jorhat, theaflavin content and quality are Sivasagar, Dibrugarh, and related (cited in Banerjee1993)xv. Tinsukiaxviii districts. i) Emdadi et alxvi, has identified the b. Source List The population usage of response surface technology includes only those factories in optimizing withering and registered with the Tea Board of fermentation times in the Assam. manufacture of tea. c. Sample Size- 10 Estate Owned j) In spite of the quality tea produced, Factories; since the study would not India is losing its presence in the be exhaustive without personally export scene. S. Patra attributes this visiting the factories by the to the export of substandard tea from Researcher. India. Compliance with HACCP or d. Sampling Procedure convenience ISO 3720 may well help in sorting sampling. this as conformance to such norms e. Sources of data which are accepted worldwide and f. Primary- Primary data have been protect the image of Brand collected from the employees of the India xvii. tea factories. g. Secondary Journals and Research Objectives of the study Papers dealing with pertinent topics in course of the study. a) To study the operating process of the h. Data Collection-Schedules and Estate Owned Tea Factories. Unstructured, uncontrolled, and non- b) To understand the awareness on participant observation. No quality awareness in the Estate enumerators have been used in the Owned Tea Factories during the study. process of manufacturing of tea. c) To explore the processes employed Analysis and Findings for checking degradation of quality in the factory a) Leaf count specifications of 70 % are religiously adhered to in the Garden Hypotheses of the study Owned Factories. Extensive plantation management policies are The proposed study is expected to test the followed to ensure weekly plucking following hypotheses: rounds, the type of the harvest and H01: The quality of tea in Assam is that the harvest reach the factory influenced by the quality standards with minimal of damage. of the Estate Owned Tea Factories. 132 b) Estate Owned Factories were manpower employed on the estates conscious on hygiene, MLR contents was an added advantage. on the tea. Most had been certified f) The Quality Upgradation and with HACCP and some with ISO- Product Diversification Scheme 22000. initiated by the Tea Board of India c) When the leaf count followed by the aims at helping the Tea Factories in same factory followed the 70 % and investing modernizing technologies above norm, the leaf count for the for quality upgradation of made tea. leaves sourced from small tea This scheme gives priority to the growers had a different figure; in Bought Leaf Tea Factories in this most of the cases it was 40-55 %. In initiative. However no guidelines the attempts of exploring the reasons regarding standardized norms for for such discriminating values, it was processing are available from the revealed that it was done so to make Tea Board. This provides ample optimum utilization of capacity opportunity for mushrooming of which otherwise would remain idle such factories without proper in the factory. operating procedures. d) The estate factories made proper g) The target outlook of Estate Owned arrangements to ensure that both the Factories is towards export and such leaves do not mix anywhere during factories bent on producing quality processing. It was also revealed that teas in any case. when it comes to leaves from own h) Moisture level during packaging of estates quality was given priority tea is maintained at 3%.