Small-tea sector threat

Avijit Sinha, TT, Siliguri, Oct. 22: Small tea growers in north Bengal have threatened to launch a movement to protest the lower price realisation of green leaves supplied to over 100 bought leaf factories.

According to the growers, their produce is fetching a price of Rs 3 to Rs 5 a kg, which is not even half of the production cost. The Tea Board of India has fixed a price of Rs 12.46 for 1kg of green leaves for October.

“Every year, the tea market slackens a bit after Durga Puja. But the price has come down drastically after the Puja this year and its not even covering half of the production cost. We need to spend around Rs 13 to produce 1kg leaves. But we are getting an average price of Rs 5 a kg in the past 15-20 days,” Bijoygopal Chakraborty, the president of the Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers’ Associations, said today.

“The entire small tea sector is in crisis as several growers are finding it tough to maintain the plants. If such a situation persists, there is no alternative other than to organise a movement,” he added.

Chakraborty said the price had come down because of inadequate number of BLFs in north Bengal. “In 2013, around 135 million kg finished tea was produced from leaves supplied by small farmers. This means we had produced over 600 million kg of leaves. As on date, there are 124 BLFs in north Bengal, but they don’t have the capacity to process 600 million kg of leaves. That means, there is an oversupply that leads to reduction in prices,” he said.

“If the Tea Board doesn’t allow the establishment of more BLFs, the price will continue to be low. At least 50 more BLFs are required in north Bengal,” said Chakraborty.

However, the BLF owners blamed the growers for not controlling the supply.

“It is an open secret that a section of small growers supplies leaves to tea estates in the Dooars and Terai. When the estates stop buying the leaves, the small farmers come to the BLFs, which leads to over supply. That is why the price is coming down,” said Prabir Seal, the president of North Bengal Tea Producers’ Association.