Tea processing unit – a first by small growers

The country's first tea processing unit by small tea growers is being set up in West Bengal.

Panbari Small Tea Growers Society, a self-help group formed a few years ago in Panbari village under Moynaguri block of Jalpaiguri district to produce green leaf, is going ahead with its plan to set up a tea processing factory in the same village. It has acquired about two hectares of land and pooled resources, about Rs 65 lakh, with contributions from its 326 members, to set up the factory at a cost of Rs 3 crore. It has also approached Tea Board for assistance and a nationalised bank for loan.

Confirming the development to Business Line , Mr G Boriah, Director, Tea Development, Tea Board, said Tea Board would provide a subsidy of Rs 25 lakh towards the cost of plant and machinery. The bank loan, he estimated, could be around Rs 1.35 crore or so. As he pointed out, about 25 per cent of the project cost, amounting to Rs 75 lakh in this case, would be available from Small Farmers' Agri Business Consortium under the Ministry of Agriculture. SFABC had a venture capital fund providing interest-free loan for such projects, Mr Boriah said.

Now, the Panbari Small Tea Growers Society produces about 1.5-1.6 million kg of green tea annually. The capacity of the factory has been estimated at 6 lakg kg of made tea. To produce one kg of made tea, about four kg of green leaf is required. “The availability of green leaf will not be a problem because a few other green leaf growing SHGs in the neighbourhood have shown interest in supplying enough leaf to the proposed factory,” Mr Boriah observed.

Tea Board, he said, is looked forward to the early commissioning of the factory as this would act as an eye-opener to other green leaf producing SHGs in the country.

According to Mr Bijoy Gopal Chakraborty, President, Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers Association, the number of SHGs active in different States is as follows: Assam 124, Kerala 100, West Bengal 44, Tamil Nadu 36 and Tripura seven. These SHGs collect green leaf from their members for selling to bought leaf factories.

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