Ooty MLA seeks collector’s intervention in row between tea farmers and factories

Udhagamandalam: Members of small tea farmers associations and Ooty MLA sought the district collector’s intervention on limitations imposed by the bought leaf factories (BLFs) for procuring green leaf tea in name of quality control.
In a letter to collector J Innocent Divya, Congress MLA R Ganesh said BLFs are refusing to buy green leaf tea from the farmers and are trying to make exorbitant profit making use of the situation.
“Leaves are fully grown and if not purchased by BLFs, they could not be used in manufacturing process,” the letter said.
As many small tea farmers are agaitated, the situation may lead to law and order problem in the district, the letters said, seeking the collector intervention in the matter at the earliest.
Meanwhile, a few other small tea farmers’ associations too submitted a petition to the collector in this connection.
Subsequently, the collector instructed the Tea Board officials to sort out the issues between BLFs and farmers.
M Balaji, executive director of the Tea Board of India (south) told TOI, “BLFs have no problem in getting good leaves. Only sub-standard leaves are rejected so as to comply with the quality standard of the Tea Board.” He further said, “As the green leaf tea price is on the rise, we are cautious about maintaining the price level by strictly maintaining the quality.”
He said the board was regulating the supply of green leaf tea as it is the peak season. Only a few sections of the farmers had been creating problems in the past one week, he added.