Guwahati: When the small tea growers are constantly under attack for not giving good produce and not following other norms, how are growers of the Rajagarh area in Udalguri doing wonders, fetching a record price at the auctions?
The scene shifts to the Rajajuli bought leaf factory in Udalguri district under the Parry Agro Industries which empowered the growers by providing them good incentives to supply fine leaf.
Small tea growers contribute 52% of the total tea produced in Assam and the area covered is 1.15 lakh hectares. In the global scenario, small tea growers account for 60 percent of global production, and they face several challenges including low prices for the green leaf to limited marketing channels, technology, and credit services.
An expert said tea quality depends on the higher percentage of 2 leaf/ 3 leaf and bud determined by the fine leaf count percentage. The better the fine leaf count percentage, the better will be the tea quality.
Parry Agro Industries Ltd, commenced operations of the Rajajuli tea factory in 2018, at Rajagarh, Udalguri, BTAD. The factory at present has 250 + growers who supply leaf either directly or through self-help groups.
The capacity of Rajajuli Factory is 11.5 lacs kgs, of which they made 10 lakh CTC tea and the rest 1.50 lakh covered Green Teas. In India, small tea growers typically sell their produce such as green leaves to the leaf factories.
” Initially, we operated for two years with normal quality leaf. Then we decided to create a better-quality tea by purchasing a leaf that has a fine leaf count of 45-50%. We created a brand Rajajuli UK for the same,” Joe Louis, Senior General Manager Parry Agro Industries Limited told EastMojo.
Once brand RJL-UK increased to 70% of production, we decided to work on making a still better-quality tea by getting growers to supply tea that has a 65% fine leaf count.
“We needed a buy-in from our growers to achieve this. We conducted a series of meetings and engaged continuously with the growers about the benefits of fine plucking and the issue of MRL,” he said.
“This development not only signifies the recognition of quality teas but also bodes well for small growers who can now anticipate better prices,” said Dinesh Bihani, Secretary Guwahati Tea Auction Buyers Association.
“We showcased the benefits of finer plucking in terms of economic and agricultural benefits over and above any crop loss to the growers,” he said.
“Our team of extension service officers in conjunction with the factory management – Senior Manager – Nagendra Pal Singh have worked on the ground to make this a reality,” he said.
“Once our growers commenced supply of the required quality, we manufactured the tea and marketed it under a new mark “Dharamjuli”, which has sold well in the auctions at GTAC at Rs. 436.00 and was supported and received by the buyers in GTAC. The total quantity sold was 191 kgs at Rs 436 a kg. The teas were sold by Paramount Tea Marketing Pvt. Ltd and purchased by M/s Baruah Innovation of Guwahati.
Yuvraj Baruah of Baruah Innovation said the taste profile of the tea is very good and they are compliant in all respects which is important in the case of small tea growers.
“We have set a target of 1.00 lac to 1.50 lac kgs of Dharamjuli brand for 2024,” Louis said.
“This is a start and we are confident that as growers see the benefits of consistently higher green leaf prices due to quality teas, more growers will adopt and embrace the quality initiative,” Louis said.
He said the benefit to the growers is that their net margins increase due to higher green leaf prices. At present, we are paying Rs.55. “The benefit to us is establishing a brand name and better margins,” he added.
He informed that the objective is to build a “quality” based sustainable model which is a win-win for the growers and us.
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“We have also launched a mobile application to enable our growers to track their chemical spraying in real time. In this app the grower can enter a daily basis, the approved PPC chemical being sprayed in his garden, the date of spraying, the dosage, and the last plucking date of that section. This will help generate a continuous record of safe usage of chemicals, which can be accessed by the grower and us. Hence, we will be able to collectively monitor the situation,” he said.
He said the mobile app “Parry Agro MRL Tracker” will help in creating awareness and monitoring the safe usage of chemicals among our small growers and thus help in achieving safe teas.
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