GUWAHATI: G Plus has earlier reported that the tea sector of Assam might incur large losses given the extended lockdown period.
After the initial phase of the nationwide lockdown of 21 days, the tea gardens have been permitted to resume operations with 50 percent of the workforce and following COVID-19 protocols.
G Plus tried to enquire about the actual amount of losses during this period. It has to be mentioned that the main flushing season of the gardens starts from March. As such the first flush was under way when the lockdown happened, and the second flush is about to start soon.
The manufacturing of tea is a continuous process and the best produce that is usually exported is of the season. However, due to the lockdown and as the industry was not exempted gardens could not pluck the buds or further process them as required.
Dipanjol Deka said, “The gardens producing the best and high quality products have suffered the most. Although overall analysis has not yet been done, we have calculated a loss of 25 to 30 percent of the year’s produce for these gardens.”
The comparison is made with the losses incurred by these estates when bandhs are called by associations for around two weeks under normal circumstances. A two-week closure in operation leads to losses of 15 to 20 percent. As such, three week lockdown losses would be even higher.
“But there are many small gardens which do not have any permanent workforce. They are dependent on daily wage ‘coolies’ and do not care much about quality issues. These gardens have been reportedly operating in spite of lockdown and have stocked their flushes. They are also ready with the skiffing process for the second flush. For them the losses might be none to a maximum of 7 percent,” added Deka.
It has to be mentioned that the major issue faced by the tea industry in this crisis is not the losses in production but the non-availability of finance as the products could not be auctioned or sold due to the sudden lockdown.
Even after the auction centres are permitted to operate after 20th April, officials worry about the sale of tea due to non-availability of transportation and couriers services. Samples of the products are usually couriered to the buyers before they are auctioned. Without the sampling process, the auction centre either needs to wait further or find other means to monetize the products.