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Price fall hits hard Kerala small tea growers

G.K. Nair

KOCHI, March 30

THE rock bottom procurement price for green tea leaves has pushed the small growers in Kerala's Idukki district into serious crisis.

According to small growers, the prices offered by intermediaries in recent weeks ranged between Rs. 2.50 and Rs. 3 per kg, much below the remunerative price, whereas the factories were paying Rs. 6 to Rs. 7.50 per kg to the agents.

Since last week, most of the small growers are not plucking tea as the prevailing prices have fallen far below the wages paid to the pluckers. The daily wages of pluckers stood at the highest level at Rs. 70 to Rs. 80 and the maximum quantity plucked 15 to 20 kg.

Besides, because of the drop in prices most of the medium processing units in the area were not purchasing tea leaves from the small growers, leading to an excess supply of green leaves. But the major tea factories were buying leaves from outside to supp lement their requirement for processing.

The small growers subsist on the sale proceeds of green leaves. Now they had been deprived of this income. And leaving the plants unplucked would also harm the bushes in the long run.

According to Mr. Pushpakaran and Mr. Suthan, president and secretary, respectively of the Small Agriculturists' Service Society (SAS) in Peerumedu Taluk, the AVT factory, one of the major tea factories in the region, was offering Rs. 7.50 per kg for the green leaves till last week.

This week the price offered was only Rs. 6 per kg. But the agents who procure leaves from the farmers and supply the same to the factory were offering only Rs. 3 per kg.

A senior manager of a major factory in the region told Business Line on Thursday that there was a decline in the prices of green leaves due to excess supply. Prices in general had dropped following imports. There was a general slump in the tea market whi ch had forced the medium and small processing units in the region to process only what they procured from their own gardens.

The agents were given Re. 0.50 and Re. 0.25 per kg of green leaves towards transportation charges and commission and the rest had to be paid to the growers. The company did not deal directly with the growers and hence was not aware of these ``malpractice s'', he said.

There was also no mechanism to ensure that the growers get correct prices. Unlike the rubber, coffee and coconut growers, there was no lobby to speak for these small tea growers, he added.

Of an estimated 35,000 hectares in the State under tea plantations, around 24,000 hectares are in Idukki district. The production in the district is about 52,000 tonnes out of the total State production of around 68,000 tonnes. Most of the plantations ar e under corporate sector. Small growers with holdings from 0.5 hectare to 5 hectares are in large numbers and their survival depends mainly on tea prices.