Acute shortage of tea leaves, Tea Board blamed

SNS, SILIGURI, 26 JUNE: At a time when the North Bengal Tea Producers’ Association has alleged that ‘bought leaf factory’ owners are facing difficulties in running their units owing to acute shortage of green leaves, small growers have blamed NBTPA for reducing the rate of green leaves from an average of Rs 10-12 to Rs 6 per kg recently.

A few weeks ago, the price of green leaves was Rs 23 per kg in this region. However, the Tea Board officials brushed aside NBTPA’s allegations that setting up of excessive new bought leaf factories and a lack of proper monitoring from the end of the TB was the chief cause for shortage of green leaves over the past 3-4 months.

Notably, the Tea Board grants permission and issues licence for setting up of bought leaf factory in the interest of small tea growers in the Terai-Dooars region, North Dinajpur and partly in Cooch Behar.

The objective of the concept of setting up of bought leaf factory was to support the small growers. The bought leaf tea factory owners would buy green leaves from small growers and produce orthodox tea, green tea and CTC (crush, tear and curl) tea so that small tea planters can survive.

Addressing the Press today, the NBTPA chairman Mr Prabir Seal, said: “Planters in the organised sector buy green leaves more than 30 per cent from small growers violating rules owing to a lack of monitoring of the Tea Board. The TB has issued many licences for setting up of bought leaf factories in this region. Though the scheduled distance between the two bought leaf factories was 10 km earlier, but recently in many areas like Bidhannagar in Siliguri the distance between the two factories is less than 200 yards.”

Mr Seal has also demanded that the Tea Board should stop issuing any more licences without proper survey on availability of required green leaves in respective hinterlands. Some owners of the bought leaf factories in North Dinajpur and Jalpaiguri had to shut down their factories due to acute shortage of green leaves.

The deputy director of the Tea Board in Siliguri, Mr KK Bhattacharya, said: “The tea producers’ allegations are insignificant. The TB has set up tea factories to keep interests of small tea leaf growers. The TB is determined to set up bought leaf factories so that small growers can easily sell their produce.”

“It is true that organised tea planters are buying green leaves from small growers but it is not a problem for the bought leaf tea factory owners. They are not interested in the Tea Board’s recent guidelines. Seventy per cent produce of a bought leaf factory would be coming to market through tea auction centre but they do not want to follow the system,” Mr Bhattacharya said, adding, “The bought leaf factory owners do not want to implement price sharing formula for buying green leaves from small growers. The Tea Board would strictly implement price sharing formula so that small growers get fair price of their produce from bought leaf factories.”

However, the chief of the CISTA (Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers Association), Mr BG Chakraborty, said: “The leaders of the NBTPA has reduced the rate of green leaves from Rs 12 to Rs 6 per kg. The rate was Rs 23 per kg a few weeks ago. But we do not understand the reason behind the fall of price of green leaves when NBTPA is facing acute shortage of raw materials.”

According to sources, a total of 130 bought leaf factories are controlled under the banner of NBTPA. Besides, 30 to 40 more such factories are functioning in this region.