August 25: Dambar Bahadur Katuwal, a tea farmer in Kanyam, Illam, is ecstatic to get a fair price for tea. Tea farmers like Katuwal, who were worried that the lockdown might affect their sales, are now excited as the industries have bought tea for Rs 40 per kg from them.

Suryodaya municipality has fixed a minimum price of tea for farmers at Rs 40. Although some industrialists protested against the pricing of the tea, the tea industry has started buying green leaves at Rs 40 with the farmers after they started going to Darjeeling without processing.

The green leaves are being sold at more than Rs 40 per kg in Illam and Jhapa. Besides orthodox tea, the leaves are plucked for CTC tea. The first tea leaves are used to make green tea for third countries.

CTC tea is made from the leaves plucked after that. Tea farmers say that even the lowest quality tea leaves are being sold at Rs 30 per kg.

June is considered the middle of tea picking season which starts from April. Since most tea leaves are produced in the mid season, its price tends to be cheaper. However, this time the farmers are relieved as the price of tea has increased at a time when it usually decreases.

Shiva Kumar Gupta, manager of Bharatpur-based Star Tea Industry, who has been involved in tea business for two decades, says that he is buying the green leaves at Rs 20 to Rs 22 for manufacturing CTC tea throughout the year in the industry.

He claims that the price hike this year is highest than previous years.

According to him, the price of green leaves has increased after an increase in demand for Nepali tea in Indian market.

Indian traders have been buying CTC tea at Rs 250 to Rs 300 per kg. The price is double than that of last year. During last year, the price of CTC tea was Rs 130 per kg.