Assam Bought Leaf Tea Manufacturers Association has decided to pay the minimum benchmark price for green tea leaves and accept only fine quality leaves.
The decision has been taken to ensure that price realization of green tea leaves provided by small tea growers and to maintain the quality of the tea manufactured by bought leaf factories (BLF).
As reported by PTI, the decisions were unanimously taken during a meeting that was held in Dibrugarh on Sunday and will come into effect from July 27.
"All the member factories have been requested to abide by the Tea Board norm of strictly accepting fine quality leaves which should form 65 per cent or above by weight," Chand Kumar Gohain, president, Assam Bought Leaf Tea Manufacturers Association, was quoted as saying in the PTI report.
He further requested to all members to "pay minimum benchmark price of green tea leaves as declared by the Tea Board".
Notably, the issue was raised at a meeting in the presence of the state's Industry minister Chandra Mohan Patowary on Friday about the persistent issues that tea growers face due to the low price of green tea leaves supplied by the small tea growers to the Bought Leaf Factories (BLFs).
