Kashmir tension pushes Assam tea industry to heavy losses

The ongoing violence in Indian-administered Kashmir has had a knock-on effect on another Indian state around 1800-kilometre away – Assam.

The demand for famous Assam tea has been plummeted drastically resulting losses in billions of rupees to the Kashmir unrest.

Kashmir happens to be the biggest consumer of Assam's Green tea, receives around 90 percent of the 50 million kg of green tea produced in the state.

But for the past three months due to the unrest in Kashmir the sale of the green tea has almost stalled.

Several planters of the state voiced apprehension that if the situation does not resolve soon, they will be forced to close down their gardens.

The Kashmir valley has been growing increasingly restive for the last several months since the death of self-styled commander of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Burhan Wani, which was greeted by as section of Kashmiris with widespread violence. The security forces had to impose curfew that has crippled normal life and hampered businesses.

Owner of green tea manufacturer Agnigarh Bioplantation Tea Company, Bijay Kashyap said that because of the current situation in Kashmir, Assam's Rs 1.50 billion green tea business received quite a blow.

For the past few weeks, there has been no demand for green tea from Kashmir, he added.

Small tea growers are the worst sufferer and some of them had to close their farms due to heavy losses they incurred in past months.

Kashyap said that season for green tea business runs from June to October but the disturbance in Kashmir started during that period. As a result tea buyers refused to place orders. In some cases even payments have been stalled, he continued.

The tea companies have not been able to make payments to the green leaves suppliers. Given the situation, Kashyap is planning to manufacture orthodox tea from the next season instead of green tea in his company.

Green tea farmer in Assam's Biswanath Chariali, Debabrat Medhi said that everything was going fine until the violence in Kashmir suddenly erupted.

Owners of tea factories say that until the situation in Kashmir returns to normal, they will not buy green tea leaves. At the same time, the last payment will also be delayed.

The situation has its effect on the price too.

Medhi said that during the last season he sold green tea leaves at Rs. 27 per Kg but now he is forced to sell it at Rs.15 per Kg including carrying charge.

"We can’t even pay wages to the labourers working in our tea gardens. How they will survive,” he added.

“We had contacted the Tea Board with a hope that they might come up with some help but they have done nothing so far,” Medhi complained.

There are about 80 thousand registered small tea growers in Assam which produce 20 billion tonnes of green tea leaves.

Earlier, a significant amount of green tea used to be sent through to Pakistan and Afghanistan from Amritsar. That has also been stopped due to the unrest.

According to Rajesh Arora, who has been running a family business of selling tea from Amritsar for more than eight decades, said till 1980, Afghanistan was the best market for green tea. That market is no longer there, he added. Till 2000, there were good green tea businesses with Pakistan as well but as the relationship with the neighbouring country deteriorated, that market too died down.

At present, Jammu and Kashmir is the only big market with a business volume of Rs 1.5 to Rs 2 billion but this market is also ruined due to the continued unrest. Tea growers and businessmen are praying for normalcy to return to Kashmir.

(1 Indian Rupee = 0.015 US Dollar)