The blockade at Kaltahar on Monday. (Mehedi Hedaytullah)

Islampur/Siliguri, June 29: Small growers of North Dinajpur today threw around two quintals of tealeaves on NH31 and set up a blockade for two hours on the highway to protest against the sharp decline in prices.

The move follows a sudden fall in the prices — from Rs 10-12 per kilo a month ago to Rs 3-5 a kilo in North Dinajpur and 50 per cent slash in other places of north Bengal, that is, Rs 9-10 per kilo — that has left small growers apprehensive of suffering yet another loss in the current season. The low scale of supply because of inclement weather had affected their business early this year.

“It is because of the state government and the Tea Board of India, which are denying us permission to set up bought-leaf factories (BLFs) that we are facing this problem,” said Debasish Pal, the secretary of the Uttar Dinajpur Small Tea Growers’ Welfare Society, which set up the blockade at Kaltahar, 8km from Islampur. “The capacity of existing BLFs is far less than the quantum of supply. This is creating an imbalance of oversupply and fall in prices.”

There are around 10,000 small growers in North Dinajpur who supply leaves to 12 BLFs, while north Bengal has around 25,000 growers and 70-odd BLFs.

“At least three entrepreneurs in our locality had applied to set up BLFs in 2005 and one of them had even built the factory. But the government is yet to sanction the projects,” Pal said.

The reduction in price has left the small growers concerned as the production has not yet reached the optimum level because of less rainfall. “If there is a rise in production in the next few months, we apprehend the prices will go down further,” said Nitai Majumdar, the secretary of the North Bengal Small Tea Planters’ Association.

BLF owners, however, had a different opinion. “It is an open secret that tea estates purchase leaves from the small growers. The production in the estates has increased because of improvement in weather in the past one month. So they have stopped purchasing leaves from the growers,” said Prabir Seal, an adviser to the North Bengal Tea Producers’ Association, representing the BLFs. “This has led to the oversupply and the fall in prices.”