Production restructuring and profitability of tea plantations in India

This study talks about production structure of tea plantations in India and underlining changes that are taking place since the process of liberalization that started at 1991. There has been a gradual disintegration of production structure and subsequent shift from production to marketing of tea. In the process, the labour force is becoming informal and temporary in nature and affects of market fluctuations are being gradually transferred to the labour market. Tea workers are finding themselves as independent tea farmers as the traditional estate mode of tea production is getting disintegrated. Profitability of tea plantations is intricately dependent on the health of tea bushes. Loss suffered by few tea plantations in recent times is primarily because of mismanagement of farm activities and short run maximization of profit on the part of management. However, the resultant adversity is passed to the working class. The study is based on detailed primary data collected from thirty sample tea estates and few small growers and bought leaf factories also. The dominant narrative being the disintegration of production structure in the era of globalization.