The Guwahati Tea Auction Centre

Guwahati, July 9: Tea warehouse owners have decided to go on an indefinite strike and not accept any fresh supplies from tomorrow.

The warehouse owners took the decision after a meeting with tea producers at the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre today failed to arrive at a consensus on their demand to raise rent rates for godowns.

The president of the Guwahati Tea Warehousing Association, Ramesh Jain, said they would not accept any fresh tea supplies from tomorrow as the meeting had failed to arrive at a suitable negotiation. “The godown rents have gone up and it is becoming difficult for us to do business.”

Warehouse owners were initially demanding Rs 30 for storing a package of tea (comprising 33kg) for a month — the current rate for which is Rs 16 — but have scaled it down to Rs 24.

Sellers in Guwahati, however, are willing to give Rs 17.60 a package.

The charge for storing the package after 30 days is Rs 1.75 per week, but this rate is not a bone of contention as of now.

Jain said there were 30 warehouses here, of which, four had closed down as they had become nonviable and many more could go that way. “We will not stock any tea supplies till the rates are settled.”

The warehouse owners have been demanding a hike for the past few months and were hoping that it would come into effect from April 1.

The secretary of the Assam Branch of Indian Tea Association, Dhiraj Kakati, who was also present in the meeting, said the rates offered by warehouse owners were difficult to negotiate and should correspond to reality.

In Calcutta, warehouse owners are demanding Rs 22 for storing a package of tea while tea sellers are willing to give Rs 20.

Confronted by the steep rates of warehouses, the tea industry is looking at options like storing in a tea park or establishing satellite warehouses near tea gardens.

But this will take some time to kick off. Dispur has shown interest in setting up a tea park with state-of-the-art facilities and is scouting for a suitable place.

“Real estate and transportation costs will also be low in satellite tea warehouses,” a source in the tea industry said. The ideal places where satellite centres can come up are Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Jorhat and Bokakhat.

Besides, warehouses are also facing allegations of tampering with teas.

The GTAC is considering a systems audit, which will look into the facilities offered by the warehouses and then grade them.