Tea prices collapse, farmers face disaster

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

The price of tea leaves has dropped significantly in West Java since August last year, placing the province's tea farmers in limbo.

"The price of tea leaves has dropped from the normal price Rp 900 per kilogram to Rp 600. We can no longer bear the losses," said Ujang Abdullah, chairman of the Association of Tea Agribusinessmen in Indonesia.

Abdullah said the association was investigating why the price of tea leaves had fallen since August last year.

Because farmers can no longer afford production costs, they have stopped tea leaf production and abandoned tea farming, he said.

He estimated that more than 30 percent of a total of 57,950 hectares of small tea farms in West Java had been abandoned by farmers.

The farms are located in Tasikmalaya, Sukabumi, Purwakarta, Cianjur, Bandung and Garut regencies.

There is more than 110,000 hectares of tea farms in West Java. This includes small tea farms (57,950 hectares), large farms run by corporations (25,250 hectares) and state-owned farms (26,800 hectares).

The mountainous West Java province accounts for 30 percent of the 4,300 tons of tea leaves produced nationwide each month.

Abdullah estimated that the declining tea leaf prices had affected some 500,000 families, or two million West Java residents, who rely on tea farming for their livelihoods.

To address this crisis, Abdullah demanded the West Java government help stabilize tea leaf prices.

A councillor in the West Java provincial administration said the provincial council had yet to receive an official report from farmers on falling tea leaf prices.

"We have heard that the price of tea leaves has dropped, but we haven't heard it yet officially from the farmers.

"We will soon check in the field whether this information is correct, and we will then decide whether we should pressure the government to stabilize the price of the tea leaves," said Irfan Anshori.