The Tea Board has announced that the average price that bought-leaf tea factories should pay to small growers for the purchase of green leaf in September in The Nilgiris should be ₹14 a kg.

Tea Board Executive Director C Paulrasu said, “This price was fixed based on the consolidated auction sale average price of CTC teas from bought-leaf factories in August”.

He has instructed all field officers of the Board to ensure that no bought leaf factory in their jurisdiction paid less than ₹14 a kg for their purchases in September. This price is ₹1.50 more than the average price fixed for August. It is ₹3 per kg more than the price fixed for September 2017.

Tea factories are only partially happy. “We have been making two representations – one, for fixing up the average price at the end of the month; and two, to fix the price based on the auction price at the auctions during the month concerned,” Ramesh Bhojarajan, President, The Nilgiri Bought Leaf Tea Manufacturers’ Association, told Business Line .