Purney tea launched – Sale money to go to family and garden hospital

Margaret’s Hope :

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.

Purney Subba at the tea launch. (Suman Tamang)
Purney Subba at the tea launch. (Suman Tamang)

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.”

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta / Front Page> North Bengal & Sikkim> Story / by Vivek Chhetri / Friday – November 21st, 2014

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *