A tea plantation in the Nilgiris. Image used for representational purposes only
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The Nilgiris district administration has constituted a committee to recommend the fixing of a fair price for green tea leaves in the district.

The action follows complaints from small tea growers that the minimum fixed price for tea provided by tea factories for green, unprocessed tea leaves was inadequate due to rising production costs.

The committee, formed by Nilgiris Collector Lakshmi Bhavya Tanneeru, is to consult farmers groups and factories to come up with a price that can be suitable to all stakeholders in the district, officials said. Members of the committee include an official from Aavin, the District Industrial Centre, the Gudalur tahsildar, an official from the Department of Horticulture and Plantation Crops, and a research scholar.

The committee is to take into account the concerns of more than 60,000 registered small tea growers and over 150 tea factories to come up with a fair price for green tea leaves. Officials said that the rising cost of green tea production due to decreasing soil fertility, climate change, and other factors, as well as rising transport costs had been pushing both farmers and tea factories towards losses over the last few years.

Small tea growers have been asked to approach the Aavin office and meet members of the committee and submit their grievances on February 25, 2025, or to send in their grievances via email at teaissuesnilgiris@gmail.com.

Meanwhile, J.B. Subramanian, founder-president of Small and Tiny Tea Growers Association, said in a statement that he had met the Nilgiris Lok Sabha MP A. Raja on Thursday (February 20, 2025), demanding that the arrear payments owed to small tea growers by INDCO tea factories, amounting to ₹1.4 crore, be paid at the earliest. “We are hoping for for quick results to the pleas we have made to the MP,” said Mr. Subramanian in a statement.