North Eastern Tea Association about current issues as they arise pertaining to Assam's tea industry, besides making various suggestions to the government for the betterment and the upscaling of the industry sector. The organization has made numerous suggestions to the Government of Assam for the upscaling the tea industry in the region. NETA has recently suggested to move the Tea Board of India's head office to Guwahati on the basis of the fact that the other five statutory "Commodity Boards" under the Department of Commerce, Govt. of India – Tea, Coffee, Rubber, Spices and Tobacco are headquartered in the State where the product is
Nilgiri tea After processing (which converts the green leaf into 'made tea'), most is sold through regularly scheduled auctions in Coonoor, Coimbatore and Kochi. More than 50% of Nilgiri tea is exported, and usually finds its way into blends used for tea bags. Data is unreliable on the precise proportion of Nilgiri tea that is actually exported. However, Neilson and Pritchard ("op cit") suggest that at least 70% of South Indian tea is exported, and the Nilgiris constitutes more than half of all South Indian production. The expensive hand-sorted, full-leaf versions of the tea like the Orange Pekoe (O.P.) are highly sought