Small tea growers protest over reduction of green leaf prices

Dibrugarh: Hundreds of small tea growers on Tuesday took out a massive demonstration, under the banner of the Upper Assam Small Tea Planters’ Association (UASTPA), at Chabua in Dibrugarh to protest against the decline in prices of green tea leaves.Raising slogans against the bought leaf factories (BLFs), the protestors said the reduction of green tea leaf rates from Rs 52 per kg to an unsustainable Rs 15 per kg has created an unprecedented crisis for small-scale cultivators, who form the backbone of Assam’s tea industry.The huge reduction in price has created an impossible economic situation for local growers, who now have to sell their produce at rates far below their production costs.“Small tea growers are being systematically exploited and forced into financial ruin. Our members are compelled to incur huge losses, while production costs continue to soar. When we demand fair compensation, these factories brazenly threaten to source their requirements from Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland instead,” UASTPA general secretary Diganta Hazarika said.He further said, “These bought leaf factories are weaponising interstate competition to crush local farmers economically.

They’re deliberately sourcing tea leaves from neighbouring states to maintain an artificial price suppression. This predatory approach is destroying livelihoods and threatening the entire small tea sector.”According to Hazarika, the pricing crisis has particularly affected unemployed educated youth, who have invested their savings and aspirations into the small-scale tea cultivation as an alternative livelihood strategy.The UASTPA demanded immediate intervention from the district administration to implement a fair pricing mechanism and shield local cultivators from exploitation. The protest culminated with the submission of a memorandum to circle officer Mitali Lahon, outlining their demands.