The North Eastern Tea Association on Wednesday said higher wage is unlikely to happen until things normalise in the tea industry.
“There are still lots of uncertainties though tea production has started. The supply chain has not yet opened. So paying wages even at the present rate is becoming difficult. Therefore, paying higher wages is not likely to happen until things normalise,” adviser to the association Bidyananda Barkakoty told The Telegraph.
The association has urged the government to mitigate the losses suffered by the tea industry due to lockdown.
The association, which had carried out a study, pegged the losses to Assam tea industry due to the lockdown at Rs 1,218 crore.
“Due to prolonged lockdown, about 35 per cent of our plantations will have to be skiffed (removal of overgrown tea leaves). Skiffing operation will add to extra costs and require two to three weeks for recovery to bring the tea bushes into a pluckable condition. Due to this skiffing operation, there will be crop loss in April and May,” Barkakoty said.
He added the new tea season had barely started around the second week of March.
“The tea gardens had to be closed down from March 22 due to Covid-19 related issues and the subsequent national lockdown. Therefore, we have lost almost the entire crop of March which is estimated to be about 30 million kg. As per Tea Board of India figures, the harvesting of tea in Assam in March 2019 was 4.6 per cent of Assam’s annual production in 2019 (January to December) which was 715.79 million kg,” Barkakoty said.
In Assam, in the month of April, 6.3 per cent of annual crop was harvested.
“Considering the fact that plucking operations will start from April 15 and taking into account the crop loss due to skiffing, the total crop loss for the month of April would be about 30 million kg. Moreover, the skiffed areas will continue to lose crop in May until their full recovery. The crop of Assam in May 2019 was 9.3 per cent of annual crop. The estimated crop loss for May will be about 20 million kg,” he said.
