Representatives of bought-leaf factories (BLFs) on Thursday agreed to resume the purchase of tea leaves from small growers on Friday, the decision coming within 24 hours of the cultivators taking up the crisis in the sector with the chief minister.

The BLFs had stopped buying tea leaves from small growers on April 1, insisting that each batch of the produce carried a lab report that ruled out the presence of chemicals which are banned for tea cultivation.

“Today’s decision has come as a major relief for around 10 lakh people dependent
on the small tea sector in north Bengal. The BLFs will start buying tea leaves from the growers tomorrow. We thank the chief minister for extending a helping hand to us,” said Bijoygopal Chakraborty, the president of the Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers’ Associations.

Chakraborty, along with some other small growers, met Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday and apprised her that BLFs (standalone units) were not taking the produce from them.

Mamata, while speaking at public meetings in Mathabhanga and Malbazar on Thursday, referred to the issue.

“Because of the Centre’s directive, the livelihood of so many people is in crisis.
We have spoken with them and will not let the Centre make any such move which is affecting people’s lives,” she said.

The BLFs stopped buying leaves because the Tea Board and the Food & Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) have decided that tea samples will be
tested at processing units regularly to find out whether they contained harmful chemicals.

The BLFs agreed to purchase the tea leaves from the small growers at a meeting the Tea Board held in Jalpaiguri on Thursday.

“We mentioned that an awareness campaign had to be initiated to ensure that no small grower used the banned chemicals. The BLFs will also have to take responsibility in this regard,” said Chakraborty.

Bengal has over 240 BLFs which also suffered losses in the past few days.