Tea growers in The Nilgiris in dire straits due to falling prices

Tea farmers say that they have been witnessing the downward trend since January this year and such a negative trend recurs once in every few years. The Tea Board of India has announced the district average price for green leaf for November as Rs 13 per kg.

It was Rs 13.28 per kg in October and a good Rs 17 a kg in January, when made-tea was auctioned for an average of Rs 100 per kg in the start of the year. It was comparatively better last year too. Only in the last few months, the made-tea prices have dropped to a drastic Rs 68 per kg causing further blow to growers.

Tea leaf prices may now be at its lowest, yet the market situation is such that over 60 per cent of tea production factories do not pay the growers even the Tea Board-fixed price, citing surplus supply of green tea leaf. Tea factories claim to realise poorer returns for made-teathrough auctioning.

“Even the Tea Board-fixed price has not been given and growers are paid a much lesser Rs 8 and Rs 9 a kg for tea leaf. It’s because the buyer lobbies negotiate and strike low-cost deals. The tea growers will continue to be in a fix until some regulation is imposed on buyer’s side to fix a minimum price for their purchase,” said B Venugopal, founder of The Nilgiris Small Scale Tea Growers Awareness Centre.

Tea growers rued that while the cost of made-tea has shot up in tune with inflation, it’s the otherway with the green tea leaf growers. Price of tea leaves has been falling year on year forcing the tea industry to stare at huge loss and uncertainty. One kg of tea can be made with about four kg of tea leaves.  

“Tea farming has now become a risky business due to rising human animal conflicts and estate owners have been pushed to a situation to even sell off their lands to switch over to other professions. Hence, the pristine hill is fast turning into a concrete jungle with tea growers shunning this profession. The hills have also witnessed a sharp decline in population over the years,” he added.

Another reason for low pricing is because of peak production ranging from 15 lakh kg to 20 lakh kg. The quantum of production would come down further by halve its quantity during the winter months from December to February. Then, the tea growers hope that the tea leaf prices will go up due to high demand. The demand is caused due to a blanket ban on tea production in Assam and Darjeeling during the winter months in order to maintainquality parameters.

“Forty years ago, the green tea leaf was purchased by the Co-operative Society for around Rs 10 per kg and after so many years, the prices continue to be the same despite rising inflation. This is a worrisome trend,” said B Natrajan, a tea growernear Avalanche.

Tea cultivation area has also come down by up to 1,000 hectare in the last five years. Tea farming proves to be the backbone of the hill’s fragile economy as it provides direct employment to more than three lakh people by means of plucking tea leaves, transportation and processing firms. Tea is grown in over 1.5 lakh acres, of which one lakh acres is managed by small tea growers.