– Sale money to go to family and garden hospital
VIVEK CHHETRI
Purney Subba at the tea launch. (Suman Tamang)
Margaret’s Hope, Nov. 20: The Purney Subba limited edition tea was launched by the Goodricke Group today to mark Margaret’s Hope garden’s 150th year and the brew fetched a maximum of Rs 7,000 a kg.
The management had decided to name a special edition autumn tea after the garden’s oldest surviving worker, Purney Subba, 98.
Today, Purney launched the tea in the presence of P.J. Field, chairman, Goodricke Group (UK), M.C. Perkins, chairman, Camellia PLC, UK (parent body of Goodricke) and A.N.Singh, managing director, Goodricke Group. “I wish all the luck to the garden,” Purney said after the launch.
The special edition tea is called FTGFOP1 PS Special. All Darjeeling tea is sold as FTGFOP (Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe. PS stands for Purney Subba.
The packet has a photograph of Purney Subba and his year of birth, 1916.
Of the 60kg tea launched today, 40kg was sold. “Marcus Wulf of Schroeder and Mamann from Germany and Leafull Corporation Limited from Tokyo, Japan, bought 20kg each,” said Vinod Gurung, manager (marketing), Goodricke.
The German buyer wanted to buy 20kg at Rs 6,500 a kg and later the Japanese buyer bought another 20kg for Rs 7,000.
Autumn tea is usually sold for less than Rs 500 a kg.
Jeevan Pande, the garden manager, said: “This is a small effort to recognise the hard work put in by the workers to make our tea world famous.”
Singh said the proceeds from the sale would go to Purney’s family and the 20-bed garden hospital. “Twenty percent will be given to Purney Subba and the rest of the money will be used to buy a ventilator for the hospital. If it is not enough, the company will chip in for the ventilator.”
He said the ventilator will cost around Rs 10 lakh.
Today, the management distributed school bags among 600 students and commemorative wall clocks among the 1,500 workers and gave five laptops to Margaret’s Hope High School and Rs 1.5 lakh to buy furniture for the school. “We will construct 150 toilets in the garden,” said Singh.
Margaret’s Hope spread over 586 hectare was established in 1864. Purney had worked in the garden for 40 years. Of his five sons and three daughters, one son and a daughter are garden workers. Deoraj, who is a chowkidar at Margaret’s Hope, said: “I am happy that a tea has been named after my family. This is an honour for the work force. I do not want my children to work in gardens. With a daily wage of Rs 90, it is difficult to survive.”
Margaret’s Hope stresses on workers’ health, education
Kurseong, 20 November: The much-awaited day finally arrived today, and Margaret’s Hope Tea Estate celebrated its glorious 150 years with the tea garden management emphasizing on education and health in the region.
One of the biggest tea estates in Darjeeling Hills, Margaret’s Hope organized several programmes at different places in and around the estate, and attended by representatives from across the globe, including PJ Field, the chairman of the Goodricke Group Ltd, the company that owns Margaret’s Hope, MC Perkins, the chairman of Camellia PLC, and AN Singh, the managing director of Goodricke Group, India. Goodricke tea buyers from across the country as well as abroad also attended the celebrations.
People in the garden welcomed the guests amid various cultural programmes at different locations, while school students queued up at both sides of the road leading to the estate to welcome visitors.The guests inaugurated a mothers’ club, a self-help centre, a children’s park and a crèche, all located inside the estate.
Later, a programme was organized at the factory where several eminent personalities who were born in the estate or are attached with it were felicitated.
The personalities included the oldest former worker of Margaret’s Hope, Purney Subba, who is now 98. To honour workers, the management felicitated Mr Subba by naming one of its most famous products after him, known as the FTGFOP1 (PS Spl). His photo is printed on the tea packets that also have his name and year of birth prominently written on them.
Though the actual rate for the tea product named after Mr Subba has not been fixed, some buyers from Japan and Germany bought the tea packets between Rs 5500 and Rs 7000 per kg.
A total of 40 kg of the tea was prepared for sale today.
Addressing the programme, MD, Mr Singh, said 20% of the amount they generate from selling the new variety of tea will be given to Mr Subba himself, while the remaining will be spent on upgrading the infrastructure of the Estate Hospital at Margaret’s Hope.
He also announced construction of 150 toilets in and around the estate for workers. The management also gifted a wall clock to every worker and a school bag to all young students in the estate. Five computers were also given to the Margaret’s Hope High School.
Deputy Chairman of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, Col Ramesh Alley, who was also present in the programme, said he appreciated the initiatives taken by the management on health and education. Chairman, Mr Field, briefly spoke on the history of the tea estate and how it got the name Margaret’s Hope.
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