Manipur Plantation Crops Corporation to produce its own tea next year

The Manipur Plantation Crops Corporation (MPCC), a State Government undertaking established in 1981, will produce tea next year with the commissioning of its own factory, according to official sources. The corporation took up tea plantation on commercial basis from 1982 at Manipur Tea Estate near Jiribam, a border town of Manipur connecting Cachar district of Assam. The plantation covered an area of about 300 hectares of land against the target of 425 hectares.

The tea garden started selling green leaves to Jirighat Tea Estate in Assam from 1985 at the rate of Rs 1.75 per kg but prices of finished tea for every kg of green leaves now fetched Rs 7.

The corporation started construction of tea factory at Jiribam based Manipur Tea Estate on a turnkey basis in three phases to produce around three lakh kg of finished tea in the first phase and six lakh kg in second phase and 10 lakh kg of finished product per annum in the final phase when 425 hectares are fully brought under plantation. B. H. Sharma, general manager of the corporation that the construction of the tea factory at Jiribam was almost complete and the corporation had so far incurred an expenditure of Rs 178 lakh.