Address of Shri E.V.K.S. Elangovan

摘要

I am extremely happy to be present here today on the 111~(th) Annual Conference of UPASI, a premier Association looking after the interests of growers of plantation crops in Southern India. At the outset, I would like to express my appreciation for the efforts being made by UPASI for tackling the problems being faced by the plantation sector in South India. I fully share the concern expressed on the multifarious problems affecting the plantation sector, especially tea and coffee, in India, particularly in South India. While the situation in the case of Natural Rubber has definitely shown improvement recently with the prices moving up, the tea and coffee plantations continue to be affected by the depressed prices. Apart from the low price realization, the tea and coffee sectors are also affected by increasing cost of production and fall in export price realization. The general over-supply situation and the sluggish rate of growth in domestic demand have affected the domestic prices of these commodities. The tea industry is also beset with long term problems like old age of the plantations, worn-out machinery in the processing factories and poor i nfrastructure facilities.