Close to the average price of black tea at January’s last auction of Coonoor Tea Trade Association rising to three-year high of ₹102.88 a kg, Tea Board has announced the average price for green leaf in the Nilgiris district as ₹15 for February.

“According to Section 30 of Tea Marketing Control Order 2003, the district average price for green leaf from February 1-29, 2016, has been fixed as ₹15/kg. All Bought leaf factories in the Nilgiris district are instructed to adhere to this average green leaf price while buying green leaf from the farmers. All field officials of Tea Board shall ensure that no bought leaf factory in their jurisdiction pays lower than this price in February. New green leaf price for March will be announced at the end of February,” Tea Board’s Deputy Director of Tea Development CS Hariprakash said.

“On representations of small growers, Tea Board announced the average price for their green leaf for the first time in December 2015. However, the price announced was only ₹12.50 in December and ₹13 in January. We have been asking for at least ₹15 to tide over our production cost as also the economic distress we had been suffering for long. To that extent, we welcome Tea Board’s fixing ₹15 for this month,” H Thiagarajan, President, Nilgiris Small Tea Growers’ Association, told BusinessLine.

“However, because of winter conditions, harvest has drastically reduced. The price for green leaf has increased because of low supplies now. So, despite rising the average price to ₹15/kg, our take home money has fallen. We have appealed to Tea Board to fix the average price not less than ₹15 every month, even when our harvest increases in coming months, to stabilise our economic conditions,” he said.

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