Siliguri, June 25: Small tea growers of north Bengal want a fixed parameter to determine the quality of their produce.

This and other demands will be placed before the Union minister of state for commerce and industries, Jairam Ramesh, when he will meet them here on Thursday.

The minister will be here to reopen a couple of closed tea estates and formally launch the Special Purpose Tea Fund in north Bengal. He has agreed to meet the 15,000-odd small growers at Chalsa, about 60 km from here, and listen to their problems, sources said.

“The chronic problem of unstable tealeaf price has been haunting our members over years. We want an end to this,” said Bijoygopal Chakraborty, the vice-chairman of the United Forum of Small Tea Growers’ Associations. “We will demand a minimum price which buyers have to pay so that growers don’t perish by selling at abysmally low rates.”

The price of tealeaves today was Rs 6 per kg today from Rs 11 per kg 20 days ago.

The growers will also insist on the need to fix quality parameters. “In most cases, the bought-leaf factories often refuse to pay higher prices for our produce, pointing to the quality of tealeaves. The Union minister must play a role in declaring a minimum price,” said Partha Pratim Pal, the forum’s chairman.

Among other demands to be placed before Ramesh are training for growers and setting up of mini tea manufacturing units. The minister had hinted at it in his previous visit last year.

“Thousands of growers here still lack basic knowledge on tea cultivation, despite making a living out of it,” Chakraborty said.

Trade union leaders are also banking on Ramesh’s visit. “We appreciate the initiatives being taken by the minister. However, we will harp on a demand to reopen Chamurchi, another closed tea garden where the Centre plans to form a cooperative society,” said Samir Roy, the convener of Defence Committee for Plantation Workers’ Rights, an apex body of trade unions in the gardens.