The time has come for the north Indian tea industry to focus its attention on the production of more of quality tea than before, according to Mr C.S. Bedi, Chairman of Tea Research Association (TRA). "While the yield has always been a factor in profitability, quality consciousness is need of the hour,' Mr Bedi observed while talking to Business Line here on Friday. But then, as he pointed out, quality was a total concept beginning right from the field level such as identification of long leaf, proper agricultural and manufacturing practices and ultimately extending to packaging, marketing and, in a nutshell everything. "Admittedly, all these might hurt the producers a little at the beginning, but only to benefit them in the long run,' he said. Quality conscious The accent on quality might entail lower production, which in a way should be welcomed by the industry, because the average price of quality tea would be higher and also lower production would mean lesser availability and consequently better prices. Fortunately, tea growers, even small growers, in North India were slowly but steadily becoming more and more quality conscious. "The growers are beginning to realise that better quality tea fetches better price and it gets reflected in the auction price also,' he said adding, "as one moves from the production of medium to good medium varieties, one experiences the benefit of extra Rs 6 to 7 per kg.' As he indicated, the overall quality of the north Indian tea was already showing signs of improvement. Even some of the small growers were getting good prices for their produce, thanks to their accent on quality. TRA, through various measures such as holding of seminars, workshops and training programme, had been trying to make the small growers aware of the need for sticking to quality and an estimated 25 per cent of the total number of 46,000 small growers in Assam had already been covered. "Through bio-technology intervention, we're trying to teach them the quicker root to breeding plants,' he said, adding, "we've identified past quality clones, which have fallen out of use and we're seeking the assistance of the companies concerned, as to how to revalidate them for use for the benefit of the industry.' The focus of TRA, the Chairman conceded, had earlier been on promoting high-yielding clones. "But, this was in response to the requirement of the industry, which now realises that, to be on course, it is better to give accent on quality and be consistent in regard to maintenance of it,' he added.