Tea sees one of the biggest slumps in Jan-July ’24 as production falls 13.4%
Times of India | 3 September 2024
Kolkata: Tea production in the country has witnessed one of the biggest falls in any normal year as far as the first seven months (Jan-July) of 2024 are concerned. The slump was even more severe for Bengal during the period.
While Indian Tea Association (ITA) has expressed its concern, small tea growers have urged Tea Board to defer the last date of tea plucking, specially for Bengal.
As per Tea Board figures, production was down 13.4% nationally, at 85.8 million kg. The total production from Jan-July 2024 was 552 million kg, compared with 638 million kg in the same period of 2023.
For Bengal, the drop was 39.5 million kg, a 20.8% decline and one of the sharpest drops in recent years. Bengal’s production was 190 million kg in the first seven months of 2023; it has come down to 150 million kg in 2024.
As a whole, tea production in north India registered a drop of 14.6%. In Assam, production was down by 11.7%. The maximum impact was on CTC. In north India, orthodox tea witnessed a marginal improvement in production.
ITA chairman Hemant Bangur made it clear that the association was worried about the crop loss. “There would be a slight improvement in price realisation. But the extent of crop loss cannot be compensated by price increase,” he said.
Bangur said climate change coupled with reduction in use of some molecules in pesticide following strict guidelines also contributed to this drop. “We have to live with the fact that chemical usage would be increasingly less. ITA is working with TRA (Tea Research Association) to come out with molecules that comply with FSSAI guidelines,” he added.
The president of Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers Associations (CISTA), Bijoy Gopal Chakraborty, pointed out that Bengal was the worst affected following climate change.