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TN Govt's `Ooty tea' project -- Small growers wary of returns

P.S. Sundar

COONOOR, Aug. 15

EVEN as the Tamil Nadu Government's new venture -``Ooty Tea''- is yet to take off, the small growers in the Nilgiris, for whose benefit the project is claimed to have been designed, are uncertain about the returns they would get.

Mr N. Murugan, Secretary, State Small Industries Department, had announced that the Coonoor-based Indcoserve would purchase at least 2 lakh kg of tea a month at the Coonoor auctions, which would be blended with Assam teas and sold as `Ooty tea' for Rs 90 a kg.

It is interesting to note that some days ago, the State Government and the Tea Board had pressed the Centre not to allow any tea to be sold as ``Indian Tea'' if it had a blend of teas from any other origin. However, this time, naming the Nilgiris tea ble nded with Assam origin as `Ooty tea' has raised many a eyebrows.

But, the more important query is: What is the price at which Indcoserve will buy at the auctions? This is important because, it is only this price that would fix the returns to small growers. Mr Murugan, who announced the retail price as Rs 90 a kg, ha d not clarified this point despite repeated representations. He said the objective of the scheme was to raise the returns to small growers to Rs 10 a kg for the green leaf supplied to the factories from the present level of Rs 6. But, if the return has to be Rs 10, the auction purchase price should be around Rs 60 a kg. For, only then, after deducting a factory expense of Rs 15-20, the return divided by four (because, four kgs of green leaves make one kg of black tea) would come to Rs 10. Whether the I ndcoserve would buy at this price is still uncertain as the market is now hovering around Rs 44 on the average.

Again, in a month, as much as 80 lakh kg come for auction at Coonoor. If the Indcoserve is to buy only 2 lakh kg, it would make little difference in the price trend.

Yet another factor is that there are over 60,000 small growers supplying green leaf to the various factories in the Nilgiris. The benefit of the Indcoserve purchase would go only to that small fraction of the growers who had supplied leaves to those fac tories whose teas the Indcoserve bought for the new scheme.

Meanwhile, the prices at the Coonoor auctions have shown a declining trend in the last couple of weeks. On an average, teas have lost Rs 6 a kg in the last fortnight. There are heavy withdrawals with some teas finding no takers at all. The buyers for Rus sia are keeping quiet contending that they do not have orders.

The production is slated to go up in the coming weeks owing to the usual second seasonal flush crop. With unmatched demand, prices are feared to fall further.