What is 'fine leaf', Assam tea industry asks Tea Board

Whether 'three leaves and a bud' produce good quality tea or 'two leaves and a bud' - is the big confusion that Assam tea industry is presently suffering from. Following the issuance of a circular by the Tea Board in August, asking tea factories to adhere to 'minimum quality standard' while manufacturing finished tea from January next year, the Assam tea industry has asked the Board to soon "resolve"  the "fine leaf counting method" and clarify whether to count 'three leaves and a bud' as 'fine leaf'.

"Though there are different methods for leaf quality assessment but ballometric count has been widely used. In Assam, all these years we used to take 2 leaf and a bud as fine and never used to take 3 leaf and a bud as fine. But in south India, during our recent visit to the Nilgiris, we found that 3 leaf and a bud is taken as fine while doing fine leaf counting. The Tea Board had issued a circular for South India in this regard in 2006," said Bidyananda Barkakoty, chairman of North Eastern Tea Association (NETA). Barkakoty said the Tea Board had organised a workshop at Golaghat, in Assam, in the month of September 2013 on how to count fine leaf.

"The TES scientist, who was the resource person of the workshop, took 3 leaf and a bud as fine while demonstrating how to count fine leaf. Manufacturers were shocked to see the new method of counting fine leaf because all throughout these 100 years, Tocklai taught to take 2 leaf and a bud as fine. The growers present in the workshop felt that they have been cheated by the manufacturers till date by not taking 3 leaf and a bud as fine while counting fine leaf in their factories. Therefore, before implementing the Tea Board circular dated August 6, 2013 from January 2014, this issue of fine leaf counting method should be resolved; otherwise there is every fear of conflict between the growers and manufacturers. Tocklai, being the world's oldest and largest tea research organisation, has a bigger role to play in this issue," said Barkakoty.