The tea business has urged the Commerce Ministry to declare a floor price for tea. File.
| Photo Credit: Thulasi Kakkat
Highlighting a spike in value of production and a decline in crop in Darjeeling and the Dooars area of West Bengal, the tea business has urged the Commerce Ministry to declare a floor price for tea.
“The industry has proposed to the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India for declaration of a floor price for Green Leaf (payable to small tea growers) and Made Tea (payable to tea producers) indexed to cost of production,” the Indian Tea Association (ITA) stated in a press assertion.
The ITA stated that the introduction of a floor price can be a right away answer to the difficulty of “unremunerative price of tea” with none further value to the authorities, given the incontrovertible fact that the Indian tea market left to itself has not been in a position to handle the low price cycle.
According to the tea business, the Government of West Bengal in addition to the Government of Assam has supported the proposal for the introduction of a floor price for tea and have conveyed their opinion to the Ministry.
Highlighting the pressing necessity for mitigating the escalating prices to make sure continued sustenance of the tea business, the ITA stated that as per its membership crop information, Darjeeling crop is estimated to be down by 39% in March. A decline in crop has additionally been reported from a number of pockets in the Dooars area.
The West Bengal Tea Industry and notably the Darjeeling tea business has been going by way of a interval of acute monetary disaster over the previous few years with tea costs not in a position to preserve tempo with the rising value of production, the ITA stated .
The tea business argued that West Bengal tea costs since 2014 have grown at a CAGR (compound annual progress fee) of round 4% solely, whereas prices of important inputs like coal, fuel, MOP, sulphur and others have grown at a CAGR of 9% to 12% throughout the identical interval.
“Auction prices of Darjeeling tea have been more depressed than the overall West Bengal Average price – recording a CAGR of only 1.86% since 2014. Given the fact that the cost of production in Darjeeling hills is significantly higher compared to the plains, the majority of Darjeeling tea estates are finding it difficult to sustain operations,” the ITA stated.
Tea plantation employees are paid ₹232 per day and in response to the ITA, the wages have elevated by 144% from ₹95 since April 2014.
