Tea Board forms panel on improving quality of green leaf

Tea Board on Friday announced formation of an 11-member committee to study the reasons behind the deteriorating quality of green tea leaves and to suggest remedial measures to reverse that. Headed by the executive director of the Tea Board's office at Guwahati, the panel will comprise representatives of bought-leaf factories, estate factories and small tea growers. Tea Board also said that the panel will conduct a threadbare examination of the causes of falling green leaf quality across the country and will submit its report within three months.

Confederation of Small Tea Growers Association of India (CISTA) president Bijoygopal Chakraborty said the production during the ongoing second flush season has ''fallen'' while prices of green leaf dipped, which goes against the basic principle of economics.

The second flush output constitutes 12-13 per cent of the annual production volumes in West Bengal, he said.

The production of small tea growers in the state has "dipped due to pest attacks and scanty rainfall caused by global warming", he said.

"Tea Board has decided to set up a fact-finding committee to ascertain the causes of falling green leaf prices and also its quality'', an official of the board said.

Compared to last year when green leaf prices were around Rs 35 per kilogram, the same has plummeted to Rs 17 per kilogram during the second flush season this year, Chakraborty said.

"Prices generally rise when a shortfall of a commodity arises. But in this case, prices of green leaf produced by small tea growers are falling, while production is also declining. The problem is even compounded by the rise in production costs. Such a situation is making operations of small tea growers unviable," he said.

Chakraborty said that bought leaf factories, which buy the crop from small growers, are pointing out the fact that "demand for tea leaf is falling and they are also saddled with huge inventories, which is leading to lower off-take".

Annual production of small tea growers constitutes 65 per cent of the total crop in the northern part of West Bengal, while it is close to 52 per cent of the overall volume of the country.

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