Green leaf prices fall to 5-year low

GUWAHATI: Green leaf prices in the open market have plummeted from Rs 14 per kg in September to Rs 6. This is the lowest price in the last five years. On Saturday, the All Assam Small Tea Growers’ Association ( AASTGA) will dump leafs on the national highway as a protest.

The AASTGA general secretary Karuna Mahanta told ET: “We want the state government to remove the ban on setting up bought leaf factories. The government has put on hold fresh registration of BLFs for the last three years.” Rakesh Saini, executive director of Tea Board, told ET: “We are going to implement the price sharing formula strictly.

According to the formula, every registered tea manufacturer, purchasing tea leaf from small tea growers, shall share the total gross proceeds from the sale of such manufactured teas with the growers.”