Dry weather & pests eat into first flush - Terai tea industry fears 70% decline in production in current season

STUNG BY SUMMER

TT, Siliguri, March 9: Tea planters in the Terai are staring at a decrease of around 70 per cent in the production of high quality brew during the ongoing plucking season because of less rainfall and pest attacks on plants caused by the dry weather.

The Terai has around 60 tea estates whose annual production is 130 million kg. Of the total yearly production, the first flush - fresh leaves of high quality plucked from February-end to March-end - accounts for about 20 per cent (26 million kg). But value-wise, the first flush fetches around 35 per cent of total annual earnings.

The estate owners have said there has been virtually no rain since October and tea bushes are being affected.

"December was completely dry and during January and February, the rainfall was less by 60 to 90 per cent. Although the bushes were irrigated, absence of rainfall has taken its toll on the production," U.B. Das, the secretary of the Terai Indian Planters' Association, said today.

According to him, added to the absence of rainfall, low humidity and rising temperature have compounded the problem.

"Humidity has gone below 45 per cent, while the temperature has increased by five degrees Celsius compared to the normal measurement. These factors have left the soil and the air dry. Such inclement weather affects both the quality and quantity of the first flush, " Das said.

He added that the dry weather had resulted in pest attacks also.

The maintenance cost has increased because of the adverse weather conditions. "We have to irrigate the plantations and use pesticides, resulting in a spike in the maintenance cost. We are worried that the industry will witness a rapid decline in tea production in the Terai in the current season," said Sumit Ghosh, the secretary of the Terai Branch of Tea Association of India.

An industry source said: ""There has to be adequate rainfall in the winter and spring for optimum production from the February-end to the March-end. We apprehend that the first flush production will come down by 70 per cent," said the source.

If translated into volume, the Terai might lose around 18 million kg of tea in the current plucking season.

"The weather conditions are so adverse that on an average, a tea estate in the Terai is getting just around 1,500 kg to 2,000 kg of tealeaves a day. Under normal conditions, around 3,500 to 4,000 kg of tealeaves are plucked during the first flush," Ghosh said.

We are keeping fingers crossed as loss of the crop would hit the industry, particularly when the cost of production is on the rise," Ghosh said.