More Stories

Informist, Thursday, Jul. 9, 2026

 

By Avishek Rakshit

 

KOLKATA – Addressing a long-pending demand from the tea industry, the Tea Board India has constituted a 10-member committee to determine the minimum sustainable price of tea in the country. The committee, comprising officials from the Tea Board, industry officials from tea associations and a statistician, will submit its report before Aug. 7. 

 

The committee will consider tea prices in the last 20 years with corresponding production costs and inflation and recommend a minimum sustainable price along with percentage of the increase in tea prices on year, as per an order issued by the Tea Board India on Wednesday.

 

"Over the past several years, prices of green leaf have not been increasing and neither of finished tea. But production costs are on the rise," Bijoy Gopal Chakraborty, president of Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers, told Informist. "The bought leaf factories are the hardest hit in the entire industry. So, the committee will look into various things to determine the minimum price."

 

In the tea industry, green leaf refers to plucked unprocessed tea leaves and finished tea refers to the final product which is consumed after green leaves are processed in tea factories. Apart from garden owned factories which process the tea estate's leaves, standalone tea factories purchase green leaves and process them into finished tea. The latter is referred to as bought leaf factories in the tea industry. 

 

"The minimum sustainable price should be both for green leaves and finished tea," Arijit Raha, secretary at the Indian Tea Association – the largest tea planters' association in the country said. "We need to look at multiple factors including regional variations in prices and costs to arrive at the minimum price benchmark." 

 

Chakraborty and Raha are members of the aforesaid committee. 

 

At the moment, industry officials are undecided whether there will be a uniform minimum price of tea across the country or the minimum selling price should be effected according to region. The order is silent on this point.

 

The major tea producing region in the country is Assam which produces the highest volume of tea, followed by West Bengal which produces the prized Darjeeling tea--the champagne of teas as is referred by the global tea industry and connoisseurs. South Indian states Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka, and north Indian states like Himachal Pradesh also produce tea.

 

The Tea Board has roped in industry officials from Assam, West Bengal, and South India for their views, comments, and contribution towards deciding on the minimum sustainable price of tea. A copy of the order is with Informist. Not only has the Tea Board ensured regional representation, it has also ensured that small tea growers and big tea estates alike are represented in the committee. 

 

Apart from the Indian Tea Association and Tea Association of India, which represent the interests of large plantations, the committee also comprises members from Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers which represents micro-small tea growers, and Federation of Indian Tea Manufacturers Association which represents the interests of bought leaf factories. The United Planters' Association of Southern India, the apex body of tea, coffee, rubber, cardamom, and pepper planters in south India is also a member of the committee. End

 

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd. by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt. Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.