Nilgiris, Mar 5: The Tamil Nadu government has released ₹8.5 crore as support price assistance to small tea growers who supplied green tea leaves (GTL) to Indco Tea Factories (ICTF) in the Nilgiris during the 2023–24 financial year.
The financial assistance was introduced to encourage farmers to continue supplying their produce to cooperative Indco factories amid concerns that growers might shift to private tea factories, which could have led to underutilisation of cooperative processing units.
Under the scheme, the state government fixed a support price of ₹2 per kilogram of green tea leaves for the 2023–24 fiscal. During the year, small farmers collectively supplied around 4.26 crore kg of GTL to 15 Indco factories across the district.
The sanction followed a proposal by Indcoserve CEO Rajgopal Sunkara to the Commissioner and Director of Industries, Atul Andan. Subsequently, the MSME department approved the release of funds to protect the livelihood and economic interests of small tea growers. The amount was credited directly to farmers’ bank accounts earlier this week.
Among the cooperative factories, Salisbury Indco Tea Factory recorded the highest supply of 91.74 lakh kg of green tea leaves and received ₹1.83 crore under the scheme. Manjoor Indco Tea Factory received ₹87.06 lakh after procuring 43.53 lakh kg of leaves, the lowest among the units.
Industry sources said the assistance was necessary as tea prices remained weak in both domestic and international markets during the period. In 2023–24, Indco tea fetched an average auction price of about ₹87 per kg. Cooperative factories paid growers an average of ₹14.15 per kg of green tea leaves, which was lower than the district average rate of ₹16.06 per kg set by the Tea Board of India.
Leaders of local farmers’ organisations, including Nilgiris Ari Gowder Farmers Association president Manjai V Mohan and Kundha Cooperative Industries Federation president Edakkadu Ganapathy, met Indcoserve General Manager Thirumal Rajendran to express gratitude to the state government for releasing the financial assistance.
The representatives also urged authorities to clear pending payments for green tea leaves supplied by farmers over the past six months.