Tea growers in Nilgiris stare at poor prices

COIMBATORE: Tea growers are in distress over the poor price of green tea leaves amid a good yield following widespread rains and conducive climatic conditions in the Nilgiris.

The average price of green leaf as fixed by the Tea Board of India for June was Rs 15.80 per kg, and it was Rs 17.50 per kg in May.

“Even though this price is low, the factories pay much less, citing a surplus supply of green tea leaves. They buy at Rs 12 per kg of green tea leaf. Unless a minimum support price is fixed, the growers will continue to be in doldrums. A farmer spends an average of Rs 25 to produce one kg of green tea leaf due to the high cost of fertiliser, labour and transportation charges. A Minimum Support Price (MSP) of at least 50 per cent above the average cost of production should be fixed as per the recommendation of the Swaminathan Committee report,” say farmers.

There has been a demand to fix a minimum auction price of Rs 250 per kg in auction centres.

“Of this, the manufacturer would be given Rs 50 per kg towards production cost, while the remaining Rs 200 is for growers. Since it requires four kilograms of green tea leaves to make one kg of tea powder, the farmer may get Rs 50 for each kg of green tea leaf,” said Thumbur I Bojan, president of Hill District Small and Marginal Farmers Association.

Further, farmers demanded that tea powder made in factories should be sold only through auctioning centres, disallowing private manufacturers from selling in retail to avoid adulteration.

As more than 60,000 small tea growers in the hill district are facing a bleak future due to the poor price of tea leaves, the Nilgiris Ari Gowder Farmers Association has announced a protest in Ooty on July 17 to highlight their issues to the state and central governments.

“A minimum support price of Rs 40 should be fixed for the green tea leaf, as farmers are struggling without a fair price for their produce. Our protest will also demand that the manufacturers give the price of tea leaves fixed by the fixation committee,” he said.

Tea growers rued that even though the cost of tea powder has shot up in tune with inflation, the price of green tea leaves remains low, pushing the farmers into a deep crisis. Tea farming proves to be the backbone of the hills' fragile economy as it provides direct employment to more than three lakh people towards plucking tea leaves, transportation, and processing firms.