India: Small tea growers for clusters to achieve scale, submit status report to commerce ministry

Small tea growers (STGs) have submitted a status report to the Union Commerce Ministry highlighting the issues faced by them and also sought assistance from the government to achieve scale in their operations by setting up clusters. In the status report prepared by engaging consultancy firm BDO India LLP, the apex body of STGs the Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers Associations (CISTA) said that although their contribution to the overall tea production volume of the country is close to 52 per cent, they are not getting the remunerative price for green leaf produced by them while the cost of production is rising. President of CISTA Bijoy Gopal Chakraborty said a delegation met the Union Commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal two days ago and submitted the status report to him seeking government's interventions for the growth of the STGs in the country. In the report, we have said that cluster development will play a pivotal role in moving STGs up the value chain which will help ...