NILGIRIS: As per an announcement made to provide supportive prices to green tea leaf farmers, the state government has released Rs 8.5 crore for the 2023-24 financial year for supplying green tea leaves to Indco Tea Factories (ICTF) across the district. The state government had announced the supportive price as there was a high chance then that farmers would switch their loyalty from Indco tea factories to private factories, which may lead to poor capacity utilisation.
The supportive price had been set at Rs 2 per kg of green tea leaves (GTL) in 2023-24. A total of 4.26 crore kg of GTL had been supplied to the ICTF that financial year by GTL farmers. Based on a request by Rajgopal Sunkara, CEO of Indcoserve, to the Commissioner and Director of Industries, Atul Andan, the additional chief secretary of the MSME department issued an order recently sanctioning the amount for 2023-24 to safeguard the livelihood and economic interest of small tea growers in the district. The full amount was released to farmers through their bank accounts on Tuesday.
Small tea farmers in the district had supplied 4.26 crore kg of GTL to 15 Indco tea factories in the district, of which Salisbury Indco Tea Factory had supplied 91.74 lakh kg of GTL, which was the highest and received Rs 1.83 crore, while Manjoor Indco Tea Factory, which had supplied 43.53 kg of GTL, received Rs 87.06 lakh, which was the lowest.
Sources said market conditions for the tea in domestic and international markets were not favourable then, and the sale average of Indco tea hovered around Rs 87 per kg in auctions during the financial year 2023-24. Indco factories gave an average rate of Rs 14.15 per kg of GTL to their small tea growers in 2023-24, which was Rs 1.91 less than the district average rate of Rs 16.06 per kg, set by the Tea Board of India.
Meanwhile, Nilgiris Ari Gowder Farmers Association president Manjai V Mohan and Edkkadu Ganapathy, president of Kundha Cooperative Industries Federation, and their coordinator Manthanai Mani, met Indcoserve General Manager Thirumal Rajendran and thanked the chief minister for releasing the Rs 8.5 crore assistance to farmers. They also urged him to settle pending dues with farmers who have given GTL for the last six months.