Tea production in Assam's Barak valley on sharp decline

GUWAHATI: Tea production in the Barak valley in Assam has seen a sharp decline of 67% for the period upto April 24 from 6.49 million kgs in 2012 to 2.16 million kgs this year.

According to collected by the Tea Board from all the 63 tea manufacturing units covering all 101 tea gardens of Barak valley, for the period up to April 24 2013, the total tea production is only 2.16 million kgs.

Tea production starts in Barak Valley in the middle of March and the tea is processed in April. The tea production during the month of April is critical as around 7% of the total production of the valley takes place during April.

It has been reported that this decline was mainly because of the drought conditions prevailing in the valley. If rainfall does not occur in the immediate future, there may be a further fall in production in the Barak Valley.

A report from the Tea Association of India (TAI) also shows 54% decline in the production from 2.04 million kgs in 2012 to 0.93 million kgs in 2013 (From 1st March to 24th April) covering their 35 tea factories.