Benchmark of quality tea | 2021-08-03T10:00:43+05:30 Persisting difference between the small tea growers and the bought-leaf factories in Assam over the PSF (Price Sharing Formula) and the MBP (Minimum Benchmark Prices) of green tea leaf does not augur well for the industry and needs a pragmatic approach to find a permanent solution. As the small tea growers contribute to about 50 per cent total tea production in the State, fluctuation in the prices of green tea leaf has a direct bearing on the industry which cannot be ignored.Volatility of green leaf prices leading to distress selling of green leaf has been overshadowing the success story of a silent economic revolution in the State scripted by the over one lakh first-generation Assamese entrepreneurs. The quality of green leaf is crucial to the quality of made tea and there are no two ways about it. Quality made tea can fetch better price which, in turn, can benefit the growers, provided the share of the profit is passed on by the tea manufacturers during the purchase of green leaf. The small tea growers insist on fixing the MBP for green leaf, to make small tea growing a sustainable business venture and protect them from distress selling. Even though the Tea Board of India fixed the MBP yet the Board failed to enforce it as the prices of green leaf is determined by demand and supply. The tea manufacturers, on the other hand, insist that fixing of the minimum benchmark price can be possible only when the minimum floor price of 'made tea' is fixed to ensure that tea manufacturing remains profitable and sustainable. Disagreement over price-sharing formula has arisen from the difference in perception over the standardisation of fine green leaf counting between the Board and tea manufactures. The percentage of fine leaf determines the quality; and for the past more than 100 years, the tea industry in Assam has been following the standard set by Tocklai experimental station of the Tea Research Association (TRA) to consider two buds and a leaf as fine leaf while the circular issued by the Tea Board on fine green leaf counting prescribed two-three buds and leaf as fine. The Board's circular also prescribed that fine leaf of 2-3 buds and a leaf and very soft banjis should be 65 per cent by weight, soft banjis not more than 30 per cent by weight while coarse leaf is not more than 5 per cent by weight.