More crises brewing for Darjeeling tea

Work has resumed after a long suspension because of the Gorkhaland agitation, but producers' problems are far from over

In a season when the weather works to the advantage of planters, tea estates in the hills of Darjeeling will just about manage to keep their heads above water. This cannot be otherwise since the labour productivity in the hills is one-third of the national average for the tea industry and the high elevation of Darjeeling gardens keeps production costs high. Producers of the globally famed tea have, therefore, remained under constant pressure to find money for the upkeep of gardens. A decade ago, Darjeeling tea production ranged from 10 million kg (mk) to 11 mk. The principal reason for production being down to 8.130 mk last year is the large-scale migration to making organic tea, which foreign buyers want.

“Besides usual commercial considerations, there is a great deal of romance in growing tea in Darjeeling. But that romance is wearing thin because of piling up of adversities, the recent long suspension of work at the height of harvesting season being the latest,” says DP Maheshwari, managing director of Jay Shree Tea, which is one of the six leading producers in the region. 

What the struggling industry could least afford came its way on June 15 when a strike call by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha for a separate Gorkhaland state meant that the plucking of leaves came to a standstill for 104 days. Much to the pain of the 87 gardens in the hills occupying an area of about 18,000 hectares, the prized summer harvest of second flush tea that commands premium prices in quality demanding markets of Germany, Japan and the UK was laid to waste by this year’s heavy monsoon rains. 

The industry draws its sustenance principally from the second flush tea that accounts for 40 per cent revenue, though just 20 per cent of the annual hill production. The second flush tea, which releases a muscatel fragrance on brewing, is produced between June and mid-August.  Most of this desirable tea is exported drawing prices of up to $850 a kg. The first flush tea harvested between mid-March and May that gives bright liquor with floral scent also has ardent admirers abroad. A complex chemistry involving the altitude of an estate — higher the elevation greater is the concentration of volatile flavour compounds in tea — the climate alternating between sunny and cloudy spells and slightly acidic soils make the hill beverage produced during the first two of a season’s four flushes unique in appearance and flavour. 

“But once the second flush ends and rains start, the quality of Darjeeling tea takes a sharp dip, making it difficult for producers to market the beverage. Thanks to all the gardens remaining shut for 104 days, the industry is spared this season the task of marketing the rain flush tea that makes for half the annual hill production,” says Maheshwari. But quality stages a smart comeback in the autumn flush that follows the monsoon. In the strike aftermath, the industry is facing the onerous task of removing the weeds and creepers that have grown wild and pruning the tea bushes that have become free growth plants. Never in the past, had Darjeeling gardens faced a situation like this. 

 

In the middle of the strike, Rajah Banerjee, chairman of Makaibari, told The Times of London that “our tea bushes have turned into forests.” Several planters say by the time the strike was called off, the “forests became only denser.”  It’s over a month that the strike ended, but the industry is still finding it “extremely difficult to mobilise labour to clear the access roads to gardens and the ones within. “In normal times we put up with labour shortage of 35 to 40 per cent. But this has now reached 60 per cent, making the task of garden rehabilitation so much more difficult and expensive,” says Maheshwari. 

As the rehabilitation work picks up tempo, albeit slowly, what is staring in the face of the industry, particularly its many weak constituents, is finding money for the job to be done. According to Maheshwari, “nothing less than 80 per cent of the hill gardens made losses in the last financial year. In our group’s six gardens, only two were in the black last year. This year, the Darjeeling industry will make losses of over Rs 150 crore. The industry is facing rough times for the last four years. So, finding money to make the gardens ready for plucking first flush leaves in March remains a challenge.”  

With their back to the wall, the growers made a representation to the government for a Rs 325 crore assistance to make the gardens ready for March first flush plucking. But much to their dismay, the relief package that the Tea Board had forwarded to the commerce ministry was scaled down to Rs 100 crore based on a damage assessment by the Tea Research Association. According to Tea Board Chairman P K Bezbaruah, government help will be for clearing the weeds and creepers and pruning of bushes that have grown too high to allow plucking and not for compensating the industry’s revenue loss due to the strike. 

In the current depressing environment, “the one redeeming thing is the strike sending the bushes, 75 to 80 per cent of which are over a century old, into hibernation. This should make the bushes healthier. The challenge for planters will be to ensure fine plucking of two leaves and a bud from adequately pruned bushes. The already high cost plantations will soon have to contend with revision of minimum wages. This will make a demand on them to improve the quality profile of tea produced in the hills so that better prices could be fetched,” says a leading broker who does not want to be quoted. 

The first and second flush tea is mostly sold privately for export instead of being offered on auctions. What is routed through the auctions is the low-quality rain flush tea. This means the better grades are sold without discovering the right price through time-tested auctions. The practice of selling tea through private deals calls for a change.