Former ITA chairman and tea industry veteran Chandra Kumar Dhanuka has come out with a white paper on the floor price for tea, buttressing his claim that it could be the panacea to save the ailing domestic tea plantation.

Dhanuka, who controls production of 15 million kg of tea through his Dhunseri Group in Assam, also got support in his endeavour from the small tea growers who account for 52 per cent of the tea production and constitute a crucial vote bank for many assembly seats in Assam and Bengal.

“This is the only alternative to make tea plantations sustainable. If implemented, all stakeholders — the producers (big and small), workers, and consumers will benefit. Even the state and the Centre will also earn more revenue,” Dhanuka claimed.

He emphasised that the minimum floor price must not be confused with minimum support price (MSP), which the government notifies for essential crops such as rice, wheat or sugar.

A scheme like MSP requires financial support from the government, which procures crops from farmers at a notified price to protect them from the vagaries of the commodity market.

Under the mechanism being proposed by the veteran planter, who has five decades of experience, the government will not have to buy any tea. A separate auction targeted at the international market can be modelled for teas that will not find buyers at the floor price.

“Tea prices have gone up (33.8 per cent) least among major crops, which have appreciated by at least 50 per cent in between 2013-14 and 2022-23. Producers are selling leaf below the cost of production. There is a huge backlog in statutory dues of garden workers. Business has to be viable to take care of all this and pay remunerative wages to workers,” Dhanuka argued.

Bijoy Gopal Chakaraborty, president of the Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers Associations (CISTA), said the small growers back any measure that would give them remunerative price for tea.

“There should be a floor price based on the quality of tea. Else poor quality teas will flood the market,” Chakraborty said. He argued that a higher price would not hurt consumers who would get better quality teas.