Small tea growers in north Bengal have alleged that a section of bought leaf factories (BLFs) — standalone tea processing units — are buying tea waste from Assam and producing the brew of inferior quality.
“It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that these days, Bengal has become a heaven where teas of poor quality are being reprocessed and sold. A section of unscrupulous tea factories are bringing in tea waste from Assam (the largest tea-producing state in India) and making inferior quality teas. This has to be stopped and the Tea Board, along with other agencies, should immediately take steps against such factories,” said Bijoygopal Chakraborty, the president of the Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers Associations.
On Thursday, small tea growers representing seven associations from the tea-producing districts of north Bengal converged on the Tea Park in New Jalpaiguri near Siliguri.
They staged a demonstration in front of the zonal office of the Tea Board. They submitted a memorandum to the board, seeking the intervention of the board as well as the Union ministry of commerce and industries.
The demonstration was staged under the banner of the West Bengal United Forum of Small Tea Growers’ Associations (WBUFSTGA).
North Bengal has around 50,000 small tea growers who contribute over half of the tea produced in the state.
“The growers are facing a crisis as they have to sell tea leaves, a highly perishable item, at ₹13 or ₹14 a kilo. It does not even cover our cost of production. The Tea Board has come up with a price-sharing formula, but the BLFs often sell teas through private channels. We have to believe the rate that the BLF owners tell us,” said Rajat Kumar Ray Karjee, chairman, WBUFSTGA.
“To ensure that the growers get their due share out of the price of teas sold by BLFs, we want the Union commerce and industry ministry to ensure that teas of all categories are sold through auction centres. There should be a 100 per cent auction of tea, and no tea should be sold informally,” he added.
In their memorandum to the tea board, the growers have also sought a special package for the Darjeeling Tea industry. The tea estates in the hills are facing different crises, including a shortage of funds.
“We have also mentioned that the Tea Board should allow plucking and processing of tea leaves till December 31 this year. Last year, there were tea leaves on the plantations in December, but we could not pluck them as the Tea Board announced the closure of tea production. The board should extend the date so that we can make some additional earnings, which would compensate a portion of our losses,” said Idrish Alam, the vice-chairman of WBUFSTGA.