The Kendu Leaf Trade: Problems & Prospects in Orissa - Vasundhara

5.Normal trade dynamics:
(Kendu leaves being dried, and bagged for transportation as phal)
While other KL-growing states produce only unprocessed(i.e. not graded according to quality)
leaves otherwise known as phal, most of the Orissa production is in the form of processed leaves.
Basically, five categories of leaves are recognized depending on the size, colour, and texture,
etc.. However, OFDC distinguished total 9 categories among which some are actually a mixture
of two categories. Current practices recognize atleast 7 categories, like I,III, IV, IVs, and IVm
(‘s’ stands for super and ‘m’ for medium).The so-called GL, though considered equivalent to
grade-IV, is sold separately.
Production of phal leaves is cheaper, and hence the sale price is considerably lower than that of
the processed leaves; but transportation is expensive as their bags tend to be much more bulky,
and hence occupy significantly higher volume for the same tonnage. However, if a trader can
ensure phal leaves from a good crop area, then he has a probability of getting more or less an
equivalent production of bidis for the same PPQ 3 .
Processed bags are basically used for two reasons: quality control in bidi production, and as
reserve for use during the period by when phal leaves lose their quality. Phal leaves deteriorate
much earlier than processed leaves, and hence are first exhausted. Further, the wastage during
bidi making is minimum in case of the processed leaves than in phal.
3 Normal practice measures only processed leaves in terms of their weight, and phal leaves are measured in terms of
standard bags(each such bag contains about 1,000 bundles having 50 leaves per bundle in states like Chhattisgarh,
but in Orissa the SB contains 1250 keries each keri having 40 leaves. The total number of leaves is thus constant in
all the states and the weight of each leaf is roughly one gram.) in advance sale areas. However, in areas where
advance sale is not in vogue and the Department takes responsibility of selling the phal production through OFDC,
the measure is not the SB, but the PPQ or phal processed quintal. 1 PPQ is equivalent to 1.33 quintals of phal
because if the latter had been subjected to processing, wastage/rejection would have reduced the weight to their
weight more or less equal to the former. The PPQ measure helps compare phal production with the processed.
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