Duncans Industries Limited tea gardens encompass over 7500 hectares of land spread over the Dooars, Terai and Darjeeling regions of North Bengal. The average garden yields are almost 50% more than the All India average. This high achievement level has been made possible by the Division consistently improving the productivity of land, manpower and equipment in an integrated manner. 

The high yields obtained by the Group in its tea estates have been possible through careful husbandry of its tea areas. The Company’s own in-house research and development has helped achieve optimal use of nutrients and fertilizers . Uprooting/replanting and rejuvenation of tea areas are carried out regularly, and planting is done with high yielding clones which have been propagated in the Company’s own nurseries.

 

The Company is proud of its Quality Systems, which ensures production of superior quality teas, which are delivered to the consumer. The two prestigious gardens in Darjeeling, Marybong, and Runglee Rungliot , have very successfully implemented Quality Systems in line with ISO 9002 standards. They have been awarded the ISO 9002 Certification from Det Norske Veritas(DNV).

On environmental conservation, The Group gardens plant over 2,00,000 tress every year to help improve the micro climate of the area.

Clonal Gardens: Growing Tea against all odds

By the 80’s Duncans had established itself as a major packet tea player in India. With the demand for Duncans’ tea on the rise and expansion potential exhausted in the existing gardens of Darjeeling & Doars, the company decided to expand is tea-growing base.

The result was an ambitious land project. In 1990 Duncans acquired about 2,000 hectares of land in Dinajpur & Jalpaiguri districts of North Bengal. And thus was laid the foundation of four gardens being developed under two land projects : TLP (Tarai land Project) & MLP (Madarihat Land Project).

For planters it was a challenge to convert this land into tea gardens. For one, it was one of the most adverse climatic zones for tea cultivation, with dry weather condition and concurrent high temperatures for over seven months in a year. With Duncans’ long expertise in plantation these gardens are being developed into one of the finest clonal gardens in the world.

These gardens derive their name from the fact that instead of traditional tea plantation through seeds, the tea bushes are grown from hybrid clones. The bushes are planted using TV series clones developed by Tocklai Experimental Station. Duncans’ efforts are paying rich dividends. The fallow land now has a potential of giving yields in excess of 4,000 kgs per hectare, which is more than double of the national average.

With 70% of plantation already completed, the company plans to complete the balance plantation in another 4-5 years time. For processing the tea from these gardens, Duncans has set up a state of the art 1,800 tonnes per annum factory.

While these new gardens have increased the production capacity of Duncans, the economic and climatic scenario of the region has undergone a sea change. The project has generated about 1,500 direct jobs and about 1,000 indirect employment opportunities for the people of the region. Thanks to Duncans’ major afforestation programme the minor climate of the region is showing considerable improvement.  

TEA DIVISION: