Bengal Chief Minister’s directive to purchase tealeaves from small growers violating food safety norms put bought leaf factories in quandary

Tea Board flagged pesticide issue 

PRASHANT ACHARYA & PTI, SILIGURI / JALPAIGURI, APRIL 3, 2024 : The move by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to ask the administration of north Bengal to ensure that the bought leaf factories (BLFs) do not stop purchasing green leaf from small growers has put the BLFs in a quandary. Senior Manager of Bidhannagar BLF Sumit Bhayan said on Wednesday “since it is an issue concerning food safety, we are not taking the green leaves from the local growers without MRL (Maximum Residue Level) certificates. 

If the government has directed us to buy such leaves, I have not received any such instruction so far. But they can arrange certificate issuing centres nearby Bidhannagar so that hundreds of growers can avail and it will be easy to work together.” 

The North Bengal Tea Producers Welfare Association on March 29 wrote to the Tea Board, stating that BLFs would only manufacture tea which was compliant with the norms of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India(FSSAI),irrespective of the fact that from where the green leaf was sourced by them. 

The association said that BLFs had never used any type of chemicals during the manufacturing process and green leaves were sourced from various small growers in north Bengal. 

In the letter to the Tea Board, the association said that it is "not possible for the BLFs to check the quality of every batch procured by them and it has been decided that factory members will only accept or receive green leaves which are accompanied with the compliance test reports under FSSAI and MRL parameters from April 1, 2024". 

Small tea growers in West Bengal have written to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee about the "unilateral and autocratic" decision of the bought leaf factories (BLFs) to procure only green leaves which meet the compliance standards of the food safety regulator and MRL parameters. While on an election tour to Jalpaiguri on Wednesday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urged BLFs to continue buying green leaves from small tea growers and asserted that the issue relating to compliance with food safety norms would be addressed by the state administration after the Lok Sabha elections. 

Speaking to reporters, the Chief Minister said that small tea growers used to sell green leaves to factories which had suddenly stopped procuring from them as they decided to source only FSSAI-compliant tea which was safe for consumption. "Small tea growers produce green leaves on their own land up to five bighas and sell to the factories. Nearly 10lakh people are involved in this activity. 

I request them to continue with the production and we will talk with scientists after the elections on the pesticides issue which had been flagged by the Tea Board and other authorities and come out with a solution, "Banerjee said. She also requested the administration of north Bengal to see that green leaf buying is not stopped by BLFs.

"This is purely on humanitarian grounds and nothing political. This is a case of sustenance of livelihood of so many tea growers and their families," the chief minister said. The Chief Minister claimed that small tea growers had not given any time to rectify them and the BLFs have abruptly stopped the purchase of green leaves which do not comply with the food safety norm