Jorhat Upper Assam Tea Garden Cooperative Economy

Jorhat in the Jorhat district of Assam is the administrative capital of the Assam tea industry and home to the Tocklai Tea Research Institute, the oldest tea research station in the world established in 1911. The Brahmaputra valley around Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, and Sivasagar produces the robust, malty CTC and orthodox Assam tea varieties that supply both Indian mass-market blends and export markets. Tea garden cooperative societies and small grower federations represent the interest of the 1.5 million workers and their families who live in tea estate townships across Upper Assam. Women pluckers form the majority of the estate labour force, performing the twice-daily plucking rounds that maintain leaf quality. The Assam Tea Growers Association and cooperative primary societies support small-holder bought-leaf factories that process green leaf from smallholder plots into CTC tea for sale to tea auction centres in Guwahati and Kolkata. Assam tea GI certification protects the unique malty flavour of teas grown in the floodplain alluvial soils of the Brahmaputra valley.