Hill tea loss in 2017: 65%

AVIJIT SINHA, TT, Siliguri: The Darjeeling tea industry has lost over 65 per cent of its production in 2017, reveal the annual production data published by the Tea Board of India.

Earlier, tea planters of the hills had expressed a fear that they would lose the major production share due to the 104- day long shutdown from June to September last year.

" The apprehensions have proved to be true. We feel the total loss would be around 70 per cent. It would take at least four more years for the hill tea industry to return to its old position in terms of production and financial capacity, " said Sandeep Mukherjee, principal advisor to the Darjeeling Tea Association.

While in 2016, the total production in Darjeeling was over eight million kilos, it has not even touched three million kilos in 2017, courtesy the shutdown during peak production months ( see chart) . The data also indicated a marginal rise in production in Bengal, a steady rise in south India but marginally less production in Assam.

" This is because there had been flood in Assam and a number of gardens were inundated.

In south India, the weather was congenial and hence, the production has gone up, " said Prabir Bhattacharjee, the secretary general of the Tea Association of India.

In Bengal, other than Darjeeling, there has been rise in production both in the Terai and the Dooars by around 17 million kg, which is around three per cent high, compared to the production of 2016.

" One of the reasons for the rise in the production was the presence of small tea sector. It is in 2017 that production share of the small sector has crossed the 51 per cent mark vis- à- vis the total tea production in Bengal. Even tea planters ' associations have admitted it, " said Bijoygopal Chakraborty, the president of the Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers Associations.

At the national level, the production in 2017 has increased by around 11 million kg, which, stakeholders of the industry said, is minimal but indicates the steady production of tea in the country.

The exports have also gone up in 2017.

Assessed till November 2017, it shows that around 216.99 million kilos of teas were exported from India, while in the first 11 months of 2016 the total export was 200.36 million kg.

There has been a marginal increase of around 6.30 per cent in the total sale proceeds realised from exports, said the data.