DIBRUGARH, Jan 23 — Concerned at last year’s lowest-ever green leaf prices of tea, the All Assam Small Tea growers’ Association has decided to resort to desperate measures to ensure an honourable price for their produce. According to the association’s secretary Hemanta Kumar Gohain, bought leaf factory owners as well as the organised tea sector is being approached to ask them to buy quality green leaf from the small growers on an area to area basis. The association also wants to get rid of the green leaf agents, “who are eating away” into the profits of the tea growers. These agents earn anywhere between 50 paise to Rs 3 a kilo of green leaf as commission depending on the gullibility of the small tea grower. Gohain says that the agents are a major cause of concern to the association, as these are making money “like parasites” while the growers are left with almost no return on their investment and toil.
He said that the mushroom growth of bought leaf factories in upper Assam has not contributed to the making of quality tea, and that these have led to the growth of the nuisance of green leaf theft and dubious tea making processes. It is learn that one such tea factory in the Lahowal-Bokul area near here “does nothing but reprocess worst quality tea dust with some freshly made tea.” For such unscrupulous tea makers, quality is the last concern and ill-gotten profits the primary concern. With such tea makers in the fray, the entire tea industry is having to share the blame, as tea made by bought leaf factories are not held in high esteem in the auction markets.