Twenty kilometres up from Darjeeling, towards Peshak and little further on to Namring, tall weeds are choking the tea bushes. The tea gardens wear an unkempt look, victims of the Gorkha agitation for a separate homeland.
The 70-day shutdown in Darjeeling has severely affected the region’s highly sought after Second Flush tea. Worse, the continuing trouble has raised concerns about a much longer-term impact on the tea industry here.
“The second flush tea has not reached us, but anticipating the crisis we stocked up for six months,” said Dolly Roy, of Dolly’s Tea, the iconic boutique tea store of Kolkata. “But the retailers, especially the smaller ones, are in serious trouble,” she points out.
Lower volume
Darjeeling tea fetches much higher rates in global markets, but its volume is small compared to overall production in the country. India produces about 1.2 billion kilogram of tea annually, while Darjeeling, being part of the annual produce, produces 8.5 million kilogram.
While Assam or Dooars in North Bengal or Nilgiri mountains in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka produce much higher volumes, Darjeeling’s unique selling point is its quality. “It is not the volume but the flavour– best explained by the French word ‘terroir’ [the micro environment in which it grows, soil, climate, etc] that is used in connection with wine that has made the Darjeeling tea a globally recognised brand,” says Binod Mohan, Chairman of Darjeeling Tea Association.
The “queen” of that flavour is the Second Flush which is harvested towards the end of May until the middle of July. The shutdown from middle of June has prevented the full harvesting of the Second Flush which is 25% of the annual production. The ongoing shutdown has also affected the Monsoon [30-35% of the produce], which is harvested till September as well as the Autumnal crop, which harvested in October [15% of the produce], says a veteran planter in Darjeeling.
The fear is that the losses already suffered are likely to be compounded in the near future. There will be weeds that need clearing once the gardens open up. Following this, we have to give a cut to the [tea] leaf uniformly, bring it down to a level so the workers can reach the top of plant to do the plucking and wait for a month. Meanwhile, the hill will slip into autumn when the growing conditions are not good. So we have lost the most financially productive Second Flush, the Monsoon crop and nearly the entire Autumn, assuming that the gardens would open in September,” the planter said.
The planter and his friends in the business are now looking forward to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s meeting with the leaders of Gorkha homeland movement in Kolkata on Tuesday, August 29.
Kaushik Basu, the Secretary General of DTA, feels it would take couple of years for the business to “normalise.” “We are assuming that in 2018, the production would be affected by 50% as the entire garden needs to be pruned and even in 2019 there could be a 25% impact of the shutdown on the production,” Mr Basu said. Meanwhile, most workers have left the hills seeking work elsewhere as daily wage earner. “In place of one worker we now need three as the new growth needs to be cleared,” said Sandeep Mukherjee, the principal advisor to DTA.
Seventy five per cent of Darjeeling tea is sold to private buyers and the remainder auctioned, which together fetch about Rs. 500 crore. “This won’t happen this year when we are witnessing such a long shut down. We did lose 40 days in 1986, but that was not in the harvesting season. The cumulative losses has touched ₹400 crore mark, as per our initial estimates,” adds Mr Basu.
Worker’s woes
“Those who finally bear the brunt of the shutdown are tea plantation workers and those who reside in the forest villages,” says Roshan Rai, who works in an NGO (DLR Prerna) and has worked on issues of fair trade in tea plantations. The DTA estimates that there are about one lakh garden workers in 87 plantations of Darjeeling, both permanent and temporary, each being paid ₹132 for a day’s work. According to Mr. Rai they are “hit the most” every time the hill is shut indefinitely.
“I do not think that there was ever a discussion on compensation package for the workers for the wages lost in previous struggles. The plantation owners have always maintained that their business is not profitable enough,” Mr Rai says.
Interestingly, the workers who are part of the movement or agitation are not complaining. “We have no problems,” replies Shanti Rana, a worker in Gielle tea garden, about 30 kilometer east of Darjeeling. Asked if the prolonged strike in Darjeeling and Kalimpong has affected daily wage workers, she says: “We would rather eat once a day than give up the demands and we need a permanent solution to the issue.”
As a local leader of the GJM, Ms. Rana is clear where her sympathies lie. But planters too favour a solution of a lasting nature, rather than be subject to sudden changes in their fortunes that threaten the future of the tea industry.
