Minimum price: Experts support minimum price for CTC tea |
Kolkata: Former Chairman of Indian Tea Association (ITA) and Chairman of Dhunseri GroupCK Dhanuka, has a reserve price for CTC tea based on the cost of production. Dhanuka said this was necessary for the survival of the industry.
Current ITA chairman Hemant Bangur and former Tea Board chairman Basudeb Banerjee supported the call. Dhanuka said: Minimum price was the only way to make tea plantations sustainable and claimed that the proposal had the support of small tea farmers as well as.
Bijoygopal Chakraborty, president of the Small Tea Growers Association of India, said small tea growers were the most vulnerable as the price of tea most of the time did not even cover the cost. “There should be a minimum price for green leaves and this should be based on the quality,” he said.
Small tea growers contribute 52% of the country’s total tea production with 702 million kg of tea, while large tea plantations contribute 48%. Dhanuka pointed out that from 2013-14 to 2022-23, the price increase of tea was the least among agricultural commodities. The increase was over 50% for rice and wheat, but 33.8% for tea.
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