Following the standoff between buyers and sellers of tea in the Nilgiris and Coimbatore, the Nilgiris Small Tea Growers’ Association has written to the Ministry of Commerce, urging the government to intervene and ensure that the minimum price of tea, as fixed by the Tea Board, matches the minimum support price and prevent major buyers, who have been boycotting the auctions, from distorting the prices.
The tea sellers in Coonoor and Coimbatore, including the Bought Leaf Tea Factories, who sell up to 90% of their teas at the auction centre, feel that the continued boycott of the auction centres by major tea purchasers, due to a dispute over a payment system, has led to the price of teas being sold at the auctions falling drastically.
“Citing the excuse that the auction centres in the State are not following the broker billing system, the major tea packers have not been operating in the auction centres of Tamil Nadu,” said Thiagaraj Hutchi Gowder, president of the Nilgiris Small Tea Growers’ Association.
Mr. Gowder said that the continued boycott of the auctions by the major tea producers had led to a fall in the prices fixed by the tea board, particularly that of green leaves. “The Union Government should exercise its power under Section 30 of the Tea Act,” he said adding that stable prices would ensure that really low bids for the tea do not lead to a fall in the average green leaf price.
