Tea Garden Unions Files PIL In SC

Kolkata: Five unions of tea garden workers in several States have tied up with IUF, the international union of food and plantation workers, and registered a PIL in Supreme Court demanding, among other things, immediate payment of statutory dues to those employed in various tea gardens either sick, closed or mismanaged. Several State Governments, two employers' associations, namely, ITA and Upasi, and Tea Board, among others, have been respondents. The figure at the all-India level therefore would be staggering. The crisis facing the tea garden workers has come up for a review during the three-day conference currently being held here under the aegis of IUF. More than 40 representatives of various unions of tea workers from six States, namely, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Tripura are attending the conference. The IUF office-bearers felt that workers of the closed gardens should be encouraged to form co-operatives and run them. The operation management committees (OMCs) running many gardens in the northern part of West Bengal was not necessarily the answer to the present crisis as not all the OMCs were running well.

Wheat Procurement Touches 106.67 Lt

New Delhi: Wheat procurement by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and State agencies has reached 106.67 lakh tonnes (lt) during the current 2007-08 rabi marketing season (April-June) as on June 3. Of the 106.67 lt secured for the Central pool, Punjab has contributed 65.55 lt, followed by Haryana (33.26 lt), Uttar Pradesh (3.85 lt), Rajasthan (3.49 lt), Madhya Pradesh (49,825 tonnes), Uttaranchal (1,619 tonnes), Bihar (980 tonnes) and Delhi (834 tonnes). In addition, Punjab has bought 6.04 lt on its own account for a separate Atta Dal scheme introduced by the Parkash Singh Badal Government.
Over the last couple of weeks, Government agencies have managed to buy almost 10 lt of additional wheat, most of this a result of the floating of an import tender by the State Trading Corporation (STC). With the agencies still managing to procure 80,000-90,000 tonnes on a daily basis, there is every likelihood of total purchases crossing 115 lt by the end of the season. With opening stocks of 45.63 lt as on April 1 and hoped procurement of 115 lt, there would be about 160 lt of wheat in the Central pool. Assuming a monthly offtake of 10 lt, there would be 40 lt of opening stocks for the next season, which meets the minimum buffer norm for that date. But the Government may still go ahead with import of about 20 lt just to play it safe.

Tea Market Continues To Be Buoyant

Kolkata: Markets continued to be optimistic with prices ruling steady to dearer for all CTC and dust varieties in the three North Indian auction centres. Darjeeling teas met with good demand, with prices being irregular following quality. The prices ruled firm to dearer. The climatic condition in the last month was not conducive to good crop, with the result the production for May. The market in Colombo continued to see active demand with support from the buyers for Iran, CIS countries and Dubai.

Pepper Future Sees High Fluctuation

Kochi: Pepper futures witnessed high variations last week and fell. A sharp fall was seen in the turnover on NCDEX and NMCE. On NCDEX, it fell by 77,206 tonnes to 1,41,349 tonnes, while on NMCE, it declined by 6,621 tonnes to 13,198 tonnes. Total open interest moved up by 1,465 tonnes on NCDEX to 26,943 tonnes. June position down by 1,847 tonnes to 10,215 tonnes, while July and August increased by 1,347 tonnes and 1,819 tonnes respectively to 10,542 tonnes and 4,275 tonnes. Spot prices declined by Rs 100 a quintal to Rs 13,700 (un-garbled) and Rs 14,300 (MG 1) at Saturday close. The downward trend in the futures market in India is closely watched by Brazil and Vietnam. If the revised quantity restriction is enforced the investing community might get out of the trade.
According to International Pepper Community (IPC) report for the week ended June 1, the world pepper market was quiet. Prices at most origins fell slightly with limited activity. At Kochi, the price of un-garbled black pepper declined to Rs 13,700 a quintal from Rs 14,300 at the last week's close. At Kuching, local prices reduced further from 10,300 Malaysian ringgit (MYR) a tonne to MYR 10,170. In Lampung, the market continued to be very quiet and local prices delined by around 4 per cent.

Rubber Price Declines

Kottayam: Spot rubber decline further on June 2. Sheet rubber declined to Rs 86 from Rs 86.75 a kg both at Kottayam and Kochi. On the contrary, rubber futures displayed an improvement on NMCE. The June contract firmed up to Rs. 87.40 (86.63), July to Rs 88.13 (87.64), August to Rs 87.40 (87.22) and September to Rs 84.99 (84.82) per kg for RSS 4. The volumes amounted 1,225 (1,368) tonnes. Meanwhile the June contract weakened Rs 86.75 (87.43) a kg on MCX. Spot prices were (Rs/kg): RSS-4: 86 (86.75); RSS-5: 84.50 (85.50); ungraded: 83 (84.50); ISNR 20: 84 (85.25) and latex 60 per cent: 61.05 (61.05).

Darmona Tea Brings Highest Bid At Rs 104/Kg

Coonoor: For the third consecutive week, the Aravenu-based Darmona Estate stood in limelight at the auctions of the Coonoor Tea Trade Association (CTTA) when its RD grade of the CTC teas, auctioned by J. Thomas and Co, continued to bring over Rs 100 a kg. The highest bid for the Darmona tea this week was Rs 104. The previous high was for Darmona's tea of last week at Rs 108. Darmona beat several brands of orthodox teas belying the general contention that the CTC teas fetch lower prices than the orthodox teas. Kannavarai is the only other bought-leaf factory to fetch Rs 80 a kg for the CTC teas. In the Rs 75-79 band, Shanthi Supreme, Professor, Green View and Warwick got Rs 77, Dhavala Rs 76 and Selva Ganapathy Rs 75.

Pepper Futures Fall

Kochi: Pepper fell marginally on Jun 1, following reports of fall in Vietnam prices despite some buying support. Processors were actively buying un-garbled at Rs 13,700 - 14,000 a quintal for processing. Strengthening of rupee on June 1, against dollar pushed up the Indian parity. Vietnam FAQ 500 GL was reportedly down by $200 a tonne to $3,550 (f.o.b.), while 550 GL was being offered at $3,770 a tonne (f.o.b.). Indonesia has quoted L Asta at $3,900 a tonne (f.o.b.). Indian parity was at $3,850 - $3,900 a tonne (c&f). June contract on NCDEX declined by Rs 115 a quintal to Rs 13,904. The drop in other contracts hope November was from Rs 5 to Rs 90 a quintal. November was up by Rs 29 a quintal.On NMCE, June contract declined by Rs 31 to Rs 13,678. July declined by Rs 50. All other contracts moved up by Rs 48 to Rs 187 a quintal.

Rubber Price Declines

Kottayam: Physical rubber prices fell on June 1. Sheet rubber RSS 4 declined to Rs 86.75 from Rs 87.50 and Rs 87.25 a kg respectively at Kottayam and Kochi. The rubber futures weakened further on NMCE. The June contract was quoted at Rs 86.74 (87.74), July at Rs 87.74 (88.56), August at Rs 87.30 (87.97) and September at Rs 84.90 (85.40) per kg for RSS 4. The July contract finished at Rs 88.55 (88.32) a kg on MCX. Spot prices were (Rs/kg): RSS-4: 86.75 (87.50); RSS-5: 85.50 (86.50); ungraded: 84.50 (85.50); ISNR 20: 85.25 (86.25) and latex 60 per cent: 61.05 (62.10).

Four Tea Estates Resumed After 5Yrs

Thekkady: The Union Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, reopened four of the nine tea estates of the Ram Bahadur Thakur Group. The estates had been shut down for the last five years. After five years of suicides, starvation and strife, today is the day of deliverance for the 1,580 workers and their families of these estates. As on date, the group has accumulated losses of Rs 18 crore. Four of the nine RBT estates comprising 917 hectares are now slated to resume operations on June 25. The other five estates are to be opened shortly. Meanwhile, the MMJ Group in Kerala is slated to reopen its three tea estates on June 11. The RBT revival plan was chalked out after two days of hectic negotiations between the management, trade unions and political representatives. All the eleven trade unions and the management are firm in their commitment to revive these plantations. They stand as one in requesting the State Government in permitting us to convert five per cent of the land for tourism, spices and other horticulture crops. That will help us tide over ups and downs of the tea industry. RBT accounts for nine of the 17 closed estates in the State and close to half the total area.

Tea Board Asked To Make Quality-Checking Instrument Available To Industry

Coimbatore: The United Planters Association of Southern India (Upasi) has asked the Tea Board and the National Tea Research Foundation (NTRF) to make the tea quality monitoring instrument `E-nose' available to the industry at the earliest. The association, which was contemplating to import the electronic tongue to objectively measure the quality parameters of tea, is convinced that the electronic nose developed indigenously by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) would be a boon to tea factories. An odour stimulus would generate a characteristic fingerprint from the array of sensors. Patterns or fingerprints from known odours could be easily identified and classified as the system is capable of sensing volatile tea compounds and predicting scores with a high degree of accuracy.Having made some headway on the electronic nose, Upasi is sure that CDAC would be able to develop the electronic tongue as well.