Small tea growers in Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar districts demonstrated in front of the Tea Board’s office in Jalpaiguri on Tuesday in protest against the lower price realisation of tea leaves, which they sell to bought-leaf factories (BLFs).

“Most growers nowadays sell tea leaves at ₹12 to ₹14 per kilo, which does not cover the cost of production, which is around ₹20 a kilo. If the prices do not go up, growers cannot sustain their families,” said Bijoygopal Chakraborty, the secretary of Jalpaiguri District Small Tea Growers Association.

“It is surprising that a section of BLFs to which we supply tea leaves is not paying proper rates. This is unfortunate. The Tea Board has to act on the issue or else it will largely affect the sector,” he added.

North Bengal has around 50,000 small tea growers who contribute around half of the total tea produced in the state.

Earlier, the growers had staged a demonstration near the regional office of the Tea Board on the same issue.

“If there is no improvement in the prices of tea leaves, we will be forced to intensify our movement. If this situation persists, the growers would also find it difficult to regularly pay wages to the workers they engage in their plantations for plucking,” said Rajat Roy Karjee, president of the association.

The agitators also highlighted other issues, like the import and sale of low-quality teas from other countries and alleged anomalies in the process of weighing tea leaves at the BLFs.

“Such cheap quality teas are affecting the domestic and international markets of Indian teas. There should be stringent checks before tea is imported,” said Chakraborty.

After the demonstration, they also submitted a memorandum to Nipun Barman, the assistant director of the Tea Board posted in Jalpaiguri. “We have received their memorandum and will forward it to our senior officers,” he said.