Guwahati, Sep 19: The Production figure of North Indian Tea Industry reflect a precarious state of affairs of the industry, consequent to the constant onslaught of insufficient rainfall and excessive heat till May and excessive rainfall in June & July, hampering production of the crop to a greatextent during the current cropping season up to the month of July 2024,
according to Sandeep Singhania, President Tea Association of India (TAI).
The data released by Tea Board of India indicates a drop of production ofaround 11% in Assam and around 21% in West Bengal up to the month of July 2024 as against last year during the same period.
Due to the unprecedented weather condition, tea growing regions of West Bengal and Assam has witnessed weakening of tea bushes which has further aggravated by severe pest and disease infestation, indicating a further crop loss in the coming months. As reported by the member Tea Estates of the Association, the Tea estates of West Bengal is estimated to be behind byaround 10% while the Assam Estates are behind by around 3% during themonth of August 2024 as against last year.
The data published by India Meteorological Department for the period 1st March to 31st May has shown significant less rainfall in the tune of 50% to 80% in the major tea growing districts of West Bengal and 10% to 30% in Assam as against normal rainfall received by the districts during the same period.
However, with the onset of southwest monsoon in sub-Himalayan West Bengal and North East India on 30th and 31st May 2024 both the States have witnessed profuse rainfall. As per the data released by India Meteorological
Department the Tea growing districts of Assam recorded 145.1 mm and 40.8 mm higher rainfall in the month of June and July respectively compared 2023.
Accordingly, Tea growing districts of North Bengal have recorded 121.2 mm and 155.4 mm higher rainfall in the month of June and July respectively compared to 2023 with considerable increase in number of rainy days.
The month of August has again seen a considerable decrease in rainfall by 523.7 mm during the month as against last year in the Tea growing districts of North Bengal. The rainfall received during the month of August 2024 is even lower than the long term average for the region. While the average minimum temperature was decreased by 1.8 degree Celsius the average maximum temperature has increased by 0.4 degree Celsius in the region during the month with considerably less rainy days and temperature touching over 40degree Celsius in numerous occasions.
This unprecedented weather has affected the bush health and consequently cropping pattern considerably leading to lower production during the above months. Severe infestation of Helopeltis, Looper Caterpillar, Green fly and Red spider mites was reported from most of the Gardens. Diseases like Fusarium dieback, Bacterial blight and Red rust was observed to be quite overspread.
With severe infestation of Pest and Diseases, the Tea industry is left with only 33 chemicals which are approved to be used in Tea vide Gazette Notification No. 1-100/SPPAR-NOTIFICATION-CTR/FSSAI/2016 Dtd. 19th March 2018 by
FSSAI.
With another 26 chemicals to be tested for the compliance as notified vide Notification no. QA/3/2021/FSSAI-Part(3) Dtd. 29th November 2023 and Notification No.QA/3/2021/FSSAI-Part(3))dtd. 4th March 2024, by FSSAI, the Tea industry at present is beating a dead horse in its battle against pest and diseases.
While, the Tea industry welcomes the stringent steps undertaken by FSSAI in this regard with the single most objective of producing safe and compliant teas by restricting usage of chemicals that are inconsistent with FSSAI notificationsissued from time to time, it urges the Govt of West Bengal to initiate appropriate steps to issue notification prohibiting sale, stock, distribution and use of all the prohibited chemicals for the Tea industry in North Bengal, or else it will be in competitive disadvantages against other nearby tea growing
regions as the industry will fail to produce compliant teas as required under
FSS Act 2006 and FSS (Contaminants, toxins and Residues) Regulations 2011.
While the industry appreciates the move of the Govt. of West Bengal, Dept. of Industry Commerce & Enterprise vide its Letter dtd. 09.07.2024 publishing the draft Road Map to achieve the MRL Standards of Tea, it requests the Govt of West Bengal to developed awareness among all stakeholders to use onlyapproved chemicals in the tea plantations of North Bengal.
The industry further requests FSSAI to notify realistic MRL for 13 chemicals which has been approved by CIBRC to use in Tea. However, without a realistic MRL defined by FSSAI, the Tea industry is not in a position to use those chemicals as default MRL of 0.01 mg/kg is applicable for those chemicals, making it impractical for use by the industry.
With Tea Board, India revising its Crop figure to 1393.66 Mkg from its earlier 1367.70 Mkg for the year 2023 coupled with the early closure Order by Tea Board, India, the industry is looking at a drop of production to the tune of around 160-170 Mkgs during the year 2024.
With the drop in production, the industry has seen a rise in price realization of around 13% in North India, however this rise in price is not commensurate with the loss of production the industry already had.
It is worth stating that while there is a rise in domestic tea prices, the price in export front is not encouraging which is down by around 4% till date. It is further observed that while North Bengal witnessed a drop of around 21% in its production has only been compensated with around 7% price rise, meanwhile Assam has seen a price rise of around 15% as against a crop loss of around 11%.
The crop that has already been lost is primarily of the first and second flush – which are the best quality teas for the year will severely affect the cash flows of the Companies.
The industry in North India has suffered because of non-receipt of its due subsidy for the developmental work undertaken by it during different plan periods from the Tea Board.
The Industry awaits the appeals made before the Govt. of West Bengal to hand
hold the industry with fiscal incentives.
The industry while grateful to the Govt of Assam for extending fiscal incentives, craves for a similar consideration on the food grains front as huge burden is being imposed on the industry due to escalating food grain prices in the open market.
With the natural circumstances beyond one’s control, the Tea industry in both Assam and West Bengal is looking at an ill-starred future in the days to come and continuous increase in prices of essential inputs including wages and outflow on account of higher Bonus in near future will put the Tea industry of North India on the rack.