Tea plucking to stop early to curb supply of low-quality product

Kolkata: Plucking of tea will stop in Assam on Tuesday, almost a fortnight ahead of the normal closure, following a directive issued by the Tea Board to curb the supply of low-quality end-of season teas. As per the order, tea estates of West Bengal will have to suspend the activity from December 15 and Tripura and Assam’s Cachar district from December 17. The early closure is expected to reduce the December output by 25-30 million kgs compared with last year.

In anticipation of a shortfall in production this year, traders have started stocking up of teas, pushing up prices at the lower end of the market by 20 per cent in the past two weeks. Increased supply of low quality teas towards the end of the season puts pressure on good-quality teas at the auctions, and the Tea Board directive is to prevent this.

“Markets have already reacted to the move. Teas at the lower end of the market have already witnessed a hike in prices. Teas, which were selling at Rs 100 per kg two to three weeks ago, are now selling at Rs 120-125 per kg. Going ahead, prices of teas at the upper end of the market will also go up,” said Vivek Goenka, chairman of the Indian Tea Association (ITA).


“Since the gardens are shutting down early, the estates can take up pruning work in a planned manner. Better pruning will lead to quality tea production from the beginning of the new season in 2019. New season begins in March. This means that the industry will be in a position to ask better prices for their crop,” the ITA chairman added.

In December 2017, India had produced 54.97 million kg of teas. The total production in 2017 was 1,321 million kgs.


The Tea Board has fixed December 11 as the last date to process green leaves at factories for Assam and December 16 for West Bengal. Tea estates in Tripura and Cachar will have to complete processing of green leaves by December 18.

India has produced 1,117.62 million kg of teas between January and October. Planters expect production for the whole of 2018 to fall below last year’s output.

“The shortfall will be around 40 million kgs,” said Azam Monem, director, McLeod Russel India (MRIL).