Bought-leaf tea factoriesthreaten to stop production

The Nilgiri Bought Leaf Tea Manufacturers Association has threatened that its member factories will stop production if the Tea Board continues to take action against them.

“The board is issuing notices to factories and inspecting their records to find out if they had paid the announced district average price to the small growers while buying their green leaf,” the association’s President, Ramesh Bhojarajan, told BusinessLine.

“We have been regularly bringing to the notice of the Tea Board officials the deficiencies in the process of fixing the district average price, which they want the factories to pay to the small growers.

“However, no one listened to us. On the contrary, the Tea Board is forcing our factories to settle immediately the difference in price payment for the past 22 months. This will adversely affect production,” he noted.

“If the Tea Board continues to take action against us, we will be left with no option but to stop production in our factories,” said Ramesh.

Tea Board had discovered that some factories had paid less than the prescribed district average price.

According to C Paulrasu, Tea Board Executive Director, the defaulted amount till August totalled about ₹37 crore. It is this money which the board is seeking to recover from the factories and pay to the growers concerned.

Meanwhile, the factory owners have asked growers to supply only quality leaves. “We are required to follow the stipulations of the Tea Marketing Control Order 2003, according to which, we can hereafter procure only one leaf and two or three buds besides tender banjis,” said Ramesh.

“We have been buying green leaves regularly despite all odds faced by our factories. This included our purchase of green leaves, which had matured due to growers’ inability to harvest at peak production season. While we bought such leaves to support the farmers, we did not get adequate prices at the auctions for our manufactured teas. So, we had been paying small growers the due prices based on what we were getting without growers being affected. Hence, we have requested small growers to supply only quality green leaves to help us manufacture standard teas,” he said.

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