The tea consignment on way to the cargo plane on Thursday

 Darjeeling’s loss is Assam’s gain — and Calcutta’s pride.

Calcutta airport clocked its largest single consignment of tea when 48 tonnes were loaded into a Singapore Airlines cargo carrier today.

But the tea was from Assam, not Darjeeling, because the indefinite bandh for Gorkhaland has choked supplies from the hills and stepped up demand for the beverage from the northeastern state. Chests carrying more than a million kg of tea are said to have piled up in the warehouses of Darjeeling gardens following the strike.

“Today’s consignment is going to London through Amsterdam. The export order was received by us at a short notice of five days,” said Amin Khan, manager, eastern India, Singapore Airlines cargo division.

Usually, orders are given a month in advance and big consignments weigh around four tonnes, Khan said. Yesterday, a 6-tonne consignment was sent to Melbourne by the airline.

Cargo officials at the airport, too, said more Assam tea had been passing through the airport in recent days. Excluding today’s consignment, around 30 tonnes of Assam tea have been carried by different airlines out of the city over the past 10 days, they said.

“Under normal circumstances, the amount would have been half,” an official said.

Since June 10, not a single tonne of Darjeeling tea has been exported through Calcutta airport or port because of the disruptions caused by the agitation of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.

“There has been a definite increase in the demand for Assam tea. However, we don’t want the tea export in Darjeeling to suffer,” said Pradyut Bordoloi, the industries and power minister of Assam.

Assam produces around 450 million kg of tea every year, out of which 20 per cent is exported, Bordoloi said. The state earns around Rs 1,000 crore from exporting tea.

In Darjeeling, the annual production is 10-11 million kg, of which 70 per cent is exported to meet the huge demand in the US, the UK, Germany, Japan and other developed countries.

Assam’s premium quality tea costs around Rs 200 a kg in the international markets, compared to Rs 800-1000 for the second flush Darjeeling Tea.

“The demand for Assam tea has increased over the last two weeks. We are getting SOS calls from exporters to urgently fly consignments to Europe,” said Abhijit Biswas, business unit head, eastern India, Panalpina World Transport, a multinational freight forwarding company which handled the 48-tonne consignment.

“The importers’ problems overseas have increased by the insignificant movement of Darjeeling Tea. Kenya, which has a substantial market in the UK, has lowered output. So blenders need a substitute,” said Sujit Patra, joint secretary, the Indian Tea Association (ITA).

Although the bandh enforcers had promised smooth operation for tea gardens, it has not been so. “Since all banks are closed, no wages can be paid to the workers and production is stalled,” said Basudeb Banerjee, chairman, Tea Board of India. “The supply of Darjeeling Tea has been severely affected and dispatch is entirely closed. The condition has become worse.”

Calcutta’s port and airport have not exported tea for the past five days, the hills unrest preventing cons-ignments worth around Rs 7-10 crore from reaching the city.

“This is the second flush season, when we get the best-quality Darjeeling tea. If the situation doesn’t improve we may lose export markets,” said Aditya Khaitan, chairman of the Indian Tea Association, the apex body of tea companies.

Tea Board of India

A brief spell of showers in May kicks off the second flush season, after the first flush has ended in late April. As monsoon sets in well and proper, tea quality deteriorates and fetches lower prices.

Although the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which called an indefinite bandh last Monday, relaxed it from Thursday, the truckers who ferry tea from the gardens to Calcutta aren’t prepared to take chances, traders said.

Production too has been hampered with workers often unable to report for work although tea gardens are exempt from the bandh, which resumes from 6pm on June 16.

Bandh had hit tea planters, traders, exporters.......... 

“The bandh and unrest have affected both production and exports, because of low worker and staff attendance and transport problems,” Khaitan said.

Arvind Nevatia of Chamong Tea, which owns the highest number of tea gardens in the region, said the bandh had hit planters, traders, exporters and even the airlines and shipping companies that transport tea outside India.

“The losses can run into several hundred crores. This is because the tea companies have entered into forward contracts with other countries,” he said.

The smaller tea growers are suffering too, prevented by the unrest from sending their plucked leaves to bought-leaf factories or the bigger gardens that have their own factories. So they are forced to sell at reduced prices to factories outside the area earmarked as “Gorkhaland”, with whom they don’t have tie-ups.

Sources said these gardens were selling at Rs 8-8.50 a kg, down from the Rs 10-10.50 a kg at the beginning of the season.

Calcutta airport exported its last loads of tea on Tuesday. These had arrived before the bandh. “Since then, nothing. All bookings have been cancelled,” said Amin Khan, manager, east, Singapore Airlines cargo division.

Other carriers too have suffered huge losses, international cargo department officials at the airport said.

A 100-tonne consignment of Darjeeling tea, scheduled for London, has been deferred, an Emirates airline official said. Of this, 48kg was to arrive at the airport this week. “We are worried,” the official said.

Darjeeling produces about one million kilos of tea in June, the average price being Rs 800-1,000 a kg. Tea worth Rs 2 crore is exported every day and a day’s loss in production costs the planters Rs 3.33 crore.

The annual production is 10-11 million kg, of which 70 per cent is exported to meet the huge demand in the US, the UK, Germany, Japan and other developed countries.

Darjeeling accounts for 7-8 per cent of the Rs 1,800-2,000 crore India earns from tea export per year. One kilo of second-flush Darjeeling tea can fetch up to Rs 8,000 in the international market.

Darjeeling tea second flush.

“Most of the superior-quality tea is exported. It is unfortunate that at a time we are trying to increase exports — Darjeeling being the flagship brand — such disruptions have taken place,” said Basudeb Banerjee, chairman, Tea Board of India.