Local tea farmers are concerned by the low productivity despite the favourable climatic conditions found in the area. They are surprised by unusual behaviour in the tea plants like the bud not growing at the usual pace after the tea leaves have been harvested once.

Farmers in the district produce orthodox tea worth Rs3.5 million during the rainy season. The production of tea has dropped sharply to 15-20 kg per day this season from 50-60 kg,” said Samir Rai, a farmer from Sankhejung.  

The rainy season that lasts from mid-June to mid-September is the time when farmers harvest tea leaves multiple times, and the buds bloom faster once they are harvested.

Farmers usually pluck the green tea leaves once a week during this season. But what has surprised the farmers most is that they have to wait for at least two weeks after the leaves have been plucked.

Though it is necessary to collect the green tea leaves once a week this season, farmers have been complaining about having to wait for more than two weeks to do this. Once the leaves have been plucked, the buds take time to grow. Farmers said that they had not seen such unusual behaviour in the tea plants.

“We have been hit by a double whammy of a drop in both the production and the price of tea,” complained farmer Dambar Katuwal from Kanyam. The farmers in this eastern village development committee in the district, where large tea estates are operating, have been disappointed by the production and the price.

Due to lower production, the tea factories operating in the district are also getting little tea for processing. Ilam Tea Factory based at Aaitabare, Suryodaya Municipality has observed a decline in the inflow of tea leaves by half compared to last year during the same season.  

Factories have been forced to operate below capacity. Tanka Dahal, proprietor of Green Hill Orthodox Tea Processing Factory based in Sankhejung, said that they had been receiving 500 kg of tea leaves daily this season compared to 900 kg during the last season. The processing capacity of his factory is 1,500 kg per day.

Along with the decline in green tea leaf production, the market for processed tea has gone down since the devastating earthquake of April 25 and subsequent political turmoil in the country. Govinda Dahal, president of the Central Tea Cooperative Association, said that political disturbances and riots across the country had affected the tea supply in the market.