Benchmark of quality tea

Persisting difference between the small tea growers and the bought-leaf factories in Assam over the PSF (Price Sharing Formula) and the MBP (Minimum Benchmark Prices) of green tea leaf does not augur well for the industry and needs a pragmatic approach to find a permanent solution. As the small tea growers contribute to about 50 per cent total tea production in the State, fluctuation in the prices of green tea leaf has a direct bearing on the industry which cannot be ignored.Volatility of green leaf prices leading to distress selling of green leaf has been overshadowing the success story of a silent economic revolution in the State scripted by the over one lakh first-generation Assamese entrepreneurs. The quality of green leaf is crucial to the quality of made tea and there are no two ways about it. Quality made tea can fetch better price which, in turn, can benefit the growers, provided the share of the profit is passed on by the tea manufacturers during the purchase of green leaf. The small tea growers insist on fixing the MBP for green leaf, to make small tea growing a sustainable business venture and protect them from distress selling. Even though the Tea Board of India fixed the MBP yet the Board failed to enforce it as the prices of green leaf is determined by demand and supply. The tea manufacturers, on the other hand, insist that fixing of the minimum benchmark price can be possible only when the minimum floor price of 'made tea' is fixed to ensure that tea manufacturing remains profitable and sustainable. Disagreement over price-sharing formula has arisen from the difference in perception over the standardisation of fine green leaf counting between the Board and tea manufactures. The percentage of fine leaf determines the quality; and for the past more than 100 years, the tea industry in Assam has been following the standard set by Tocklai experimental station of the Tea Research Association (TRA) to consider two buds and a leaf as fine leaf while the circular issued by the Tea Board on fine green leaf counting prescribed two-three buds and leaf as fine. The Board's circular also prescribed that fine leaf of 2-3 buds and a leaf and very soft banjis should be 65 per cent by weight, soft banjis not more than 30 per cent by weight while coarse leaf is not more than 5 per cent by weight.

Clearly, before the small tea growers and manufacturers agree on the quantum of percentage of fine leaf in green leaf to tea manufacturers, a consensus must precede between the Tea Board, manufacturers, and growers on determining what constitutes fine leaf . Agreements on the percentage of fine leaf is not going to end the differences between growers and manufacturers unless the two key stakeholders agree on the counting method. As long as Tea Board existing circular on counting methods stays in force no bought leaf factory cannot legally turn away green leaf supplied by small growers over percentage offine leaf. Besides, TRA also expressed its inability to recommend a fixed percentage count of fine leaf throughout the season and is of the opinion that it varies from season to season, age of bushes, pruning system and requirement for different type of manufacturing. Such complexities cannot be wished away but call for stakeholders of the industry making sustained efforts to address those with the objective of improving quality of green leaf as well as made tea. The problems grappling the industry over green leaf quality and prices require collaborative approach by growers and manufacturers. The State government and the Tea Board facilitating frequent engagement of growers and manufacturers can help build trust. Transparency in the entire process will help the industry workout and put in place a robust mechanism of tea cultivation and manufacturing in which competition will be only for improving quality so that every stakeholder can gain from high demand for quality tea in the domestic as well as in the international tea market. Assam's large and small tea gardens provide livelihood to over 1.5 million tea garden workers employed in large as well as small tea gardens. Profitability of the large as well as small tea growers is vital for assured livelihood of these huge number of garden workers and cannot be delinked from the quality of green leaf produced and processed. Any uncertainty of livelihood gripping the garden workers and their families due to conflict between tea growers and manufacturers has the potential to give rise to socio-economic upheavals which the state cannot least afford. The state government playing a pro-active role to end the differences among growers and manufacturers over price sharing and fine leaf counting at the earliest is critical to prevent any unwarranted situation. If dynamism of small tea growers and expertise of manufacturers as well as industry veterans are mobilised on a common platform, it will propel Assam's tea industry on a new trajectory of innovation and growth.