India Tea Price Watch
July 17, 2021
Assam’s new state government continues to woo the tea industry with new schemes, the latest is that workers on tea gardens will be included in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which will benefit them in winter when the gardens are not producing tea. The announcement was that tea garden workers will be given jobs in infrastructure projects such as road building, tree planting and digging community ponds.
With 1,000,000 people making up this sector of tea garden workers, this is a significant bloc of voters for any political party. Interestingly, this week also saw the release of an OXFAM report titled, “In Defense of Living Wages for Tea Plantation Workers: Evidence from Assam” which has added to the debate around wages and cost of production, particularly in Assam. The study recommends a living wage of INRs 884 per day, accounting for a family of four and a minimum wage of INRs 285 per per person per day, assuming the estate will bear the cost of other facilities. Current minimum wage in Assam is INRs 204, following the recent wage hike of INRs 38. The debate is ongoing as tea planters’ associations have refuted these findings and figures.
PRICES
Sale 28 saw slightly lower prices when compared with Sale 27. In the south, across the three auction centres of Kochi, Coonoor and Coimbatore, 4 mn kgs of tea were on offer, with 73% sold. Export buyers were not active but upcountry buyers were.
In the north, Kolkata did well for orthodox tea. Tata Consumer Products was active in Guwahati and also in Kolkata for Darjeelings. Hindustan Unilever was active in Kolkata for CTC leaf and Dust. Second flush is largely over but top Darjeelings this week were Castleton which fetched the highest prices for its FTGFOP1 (Moonlight) tea at INRs 4511, an FTGFOP1 (Clonal) for INRs 2600, and an FTGFOP1 (Chinary) for INRs 1702 followed by two teas from Upper Namring that sold for INRs 1696 and INRs 1451.
India Tea Price Watch – July 17, 2021
| Sale 28 | CTC Leaf | Orthodox Leaf | Darjeeling | Green Tea |
| Kolkata Auction | Rs 221.48 |$2.97 | Rs 260.58 |$3.49 | Rs 506.42 | $6.79 | — |
| Kochi Auction | Rs 98.06 | $1.31 | Rs 162.12 | $2.17 | — | — |
| Coimbatore Auction | Rs 96.46 | $1.29 | Rs 125.19 | $1.68 | — | — |
| Coonoor Auction | Rs 89.56 | $1.20 | Rs 137.43 | $1.84 | — | Rs 305 | $4.09 |
| Guwahati Auction | Rs 193 | $2.59 | — | — | — |
Source: India Tea Board | India Tea Auctions
July 10 – India Tea Price Watch – Sale 27
July 3 – India Tea Price Watch – Sale 26
June 26 – India Tea Price Watch – Sale 25
June 19 – India Tea Price Watch – Sale 24
June 12 – India Tea Price Watch – Sale 23
June 5 – India Tea Price Watch – Sale 22
May 29 – India Tea Price Watch – Sale xx
May 22 – India Tea Price Watch – Sale xx
May 15 – India Tea Price Watch – Sale xx
*New audio uploaded 7-21-2021