Small-scale tea farmers of Assam facing huge losses

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Bikash Das

In Assam the small-scale tea farmers are incurring losses due to the falling prices of raw tea. There's also a lack of tea producing factories in the state.

THE SMALL-scale tea farmers of Assam have been facing huge losses for the last few months. The price of raw tea declined from Rs. 24 to Rs. 6 per kg. It is to be noted that there are more than 1 lakh small scale tea farmers in the state. But these tea farmers have been facing financial losses due to insufficient tea factories in the state.

A number of tea factories have been doing monopoly in the state. The factory owners don’t give proper price of raw tea to small-scale tea farmers. As a result, small-scale tea farmers are bound to sell their raw tea at a very low price. The central government and the Indian Tea Board have not been taking any adequate steps in this regard. The Indian Tea Board passed an order namely Tea Marketing Control Order ( TMCO) in the year 2003. But the order has not been implemented till date due to which the tea Board doesn’t have any control in tea marketing.

All stake holders in this issue need to come together to formulate a long-term solution so that tea plantation owners, small and large scale tea farmers as well as the end consumer, whether in the domestic market or the export market benefits. India is one of the leading tea producer and consumer, and the sooner we resolve pricing glitches the better it will be for the Indian tea industry.