Stating that the tea leaves they have been receiving in large volume is beyond their processing capacity, the industries have asked farmers to sell their tea by turns. [break]
“Since the volume of tea farmers brought was beyond the processing capacity of the industries, we decided to buy tea in turns,” said Mahesh Aryal of Ilam Tea Producers Pvt Ltd.
The industries purchased tea from farmers only till 12pm on Saturday and have announced of not purchasing tea on Sunday. According to Aryal, the industry has daily processing capacity of 18,000 kilogram, but farmers brought in 40,000 kilograms of tea on Friday.
Small Tea Producers Pvt Ltd, a tea industry based in Fikkal in Ilam, has asked farmers to queue up for selling their tea leaves. Karma Dhakal, a worker at the tea industry, told Republica that the new system has been introduced in order to maintain the quality of the tea leaves sold by farmers. Industries said that they refused to buy the entire volume of tea brought by thee farmers as their limited processing capacity might result in poor quality of tea when produced in large volume.
Likewise, tea industries have also started paying less for the tea leaves due to the reduction in the sale of tea. Tea leaves that were purchased at Rs 35 to 40 per kg by the industries prior to the strike are now bought only at Rs 20 to Rs 26 per kg.
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