Small tea growers’ woes: Expert committee to ensure remunerative price of green leaf
The Directorate further informed the Association that the Tea Board of India is also formulating a strategy to tackle the practice of green tea leaf from Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.
STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The Tea Board of India (TBI) has constituted an expert committee to ensure remunerative prices to small tea growers for their green tea leaf, and if everything goes as planned, the new modality may come into effect in April 2024.
According to the central committee of the All Assam Small Tea Growers' Association, their representatives met the Directorate of Assam Tea recently. The Directorate informed the association that the Tea Board of India has already constituted an expert committee to ensure reasonable prices for green tea leaves. The Directorate further said that the committee has already started its process.
The Directorate further informed the Association that the Tea Board of India is also formulating a strategy to tackle the practice of green tea leaf from Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland entering Assam-bought leaf tea factories for their sales under the Assam tea brand. The association has always been opposed to this practice.
According to the existing rule, every district should have a district green leaf price monitoring committee with the DC as its ex-officio chairman for the fixation of prices for green tea leaf in consultation with all stakeholders. However, most of the DCs do not hold their meetings. The bought-leaf tea factories also refuse to pay the fixed prices to the small tea growers for one or the other pretexts.
According to the price sharing formula of the Tea Board of India, every registered bought-tea leaf factory should pay 65 percent of its total income from sales of tea to the small tea leaf growers as prices for green tea leaf procured from them.
Over 51 percent of tea in Assam comes from around 1.22 lakh small tea growers. Though small tea growers are playing an important role in the rural economy and generating employment avenues in the state, bought-leaf factories continue to deprive them of remunerative prices. The State Government gives some incentives to the small tea growers from time to time. However, their survival is still in question in the absence of remunerative prices for their produce, green tea leaf.
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