A CORRESPONDENT
JORHAT: The Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers' Association (CISTGA) has appealed to the State Government to make bought leaf factories (BLF) pay the minimum basic price for green leaf fixed by the Tea Board of India.
Alleging that the BLFs were citing various reasons to flout this order of the Tea Board of India, the CISTGA said that this was adversely affecting their lives of many small tea growers in the State who had fallen into penury. CISTGA said that with the pandemic on for two years now and earnings already affected, the poor rainfall this year in the State had compounded matters with yield of green leaf being extremely low as compared to other years.
CISTGA said that small tea growers produced about 50 per cent of the tea in the country and the government should make BLFs adhere to the price fixed by the Tea Board of India if the small tea growers are to survive.
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