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

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excise duties, etc. on the basis of their production figure, hence it is obvious that there would be a tendency to furnish a figure suitable to them. Further, unregistered manufacturers also count for their production, which evades excise duty. Hence, the recorded figures that are based on the returns filed by the bidi manufacturers are not quite reliable. The Indian Market Research Bureau estimated the annual consumption of bidi to be 700 billion (ILO 2003,p.44) in 1996.Accordingly; the sale of about 960 billion sticks in 2004 definitely suggests a remarkable growth rate. Or, if any of these two estimates are supposed to be underestimated (700 billion)/overestimated (960 billion) atleast it should suggest a more or less stable market during these 8 years. Even if the decrease in production in the registered manufacturers is believed to be correct, a compensatory increase in the production (illegal) in the unregistered sector should account for this. In fact, according to Euromonitor estimates the bidi sector grew by almost 20% in volume between 1998 and 2002. In 1990s, bidis first appeared to have lost their appeal compared to mini-cigarettes which recorded a growth rate of 15% per year because of their comparatively lesser price resulted from a decrease in excise duties, but the excise duties were later increased on the latter in 1998 affecting this growth. The status, as per Euromonitor’s latest research (2004) is that bidi has 53.5% share in the domestic tobacco consumption in India as against 18.8% for cigarettes (www.tobaccojournal.com; Milenkovic Z. 2004, www.euromonitor.com ). And the ground reality is not always in conformity with the claims that the demand of bidi has decreased. For instance, Kandarpa Dehuri of Kumurisinga(near Angul), who worked as a commission agent for Konark Bidi and now sells bidi alongwith other items, says that during the last 10-12 years his sale of bidi has increased from 500 per day to 700/day.His experience is that gutka has affected the sale of betel, and not of bidi as it is substantially costlier than the latter(per. communication). 90,000 crore annual production requires about 54 lakh quintals of processed leaves(calculated @1 crore bidis per 60 quintal processed leaves 6 ). Hence, the market size for kendu leaves(processed) in India appears to be of atleast 50 lakh quintals per annum. Given the total production in the country to be around 30 lakh quintals 7 of phal plus processed leaves, the annual production of processed leaves should be roughly 24 to 25 lakh quintals(to include processed production from Orissa, as well as the phal production in the country converted into processed by the factor 0.75) . This suggests a substantial deficit 8 in the production so far the demand is concerned. Why then the stocks remain unsold sometimes This may be because of any of the following three reasons, as under: 6 For good quality leaves, the yield of small/standard size bidi is said to be roughly 1500/kg whereas that for long bidi is 1200/kg.. 7 Vide Tewari Dr. D. N.(1994), Tropical Forest Produce, p.309 8 this may not hold good if the assessments of annual bidi production/sales at about 900 billion is considered highly overestimated(say by 50%). 27
• There is a bumper crop. • The particular stock is of poor quality. • Price is not attractive. In fact, the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) rejected the explanation of OFDC that stocks remained unsold due to saturation of the demand in the market, and observed that lack of market strategy and market intelligence was the reason of this failure(Govt of Orissa 2003, p.33). Further, the achievements in the KL business during 2005-06 and 2006-07 look quite promising (see chart-14). This has been possible not only because of a favourable market, but also because of the dealing mechanism. Chart:16 Gross profit earned from the Kendu leaf business during 2001-02 to 2005-06 Gross profit earned in crore rupees 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 Year (Note: This chart is based on the statistics provided by the Chief Minister of Orissa on 31-7-06, in the state assembly, in reply to a question. However, there is some difference in the said statistics as compared to the figures availed by the author from OFDC earlier though it is not unlikely that the initial statistics might have been revised later.) Hence, any intention of the concerned agencies to veil their corruption, malpractices, and mismanagement at the expense of the livelihood of lakhs of the poorest of the poor should be strongly dealt with. Regarding some of their genuine problems, the strategy is suggested in the next section. 28
Page 1 and 2: The Kendu Leaf Trade: Problems & Pr
Page 3 and 4: A keri of kendu leaves. The colour(
Page 5 and 6: Contents Kendu leaf: an introductio
Page 7 and 8: List of annexure 1. Gradation of Ke
Page 9 and 10: The Kendu Leaf Trade: Problems & Pr
Page 11 and 12: 4.Livelihood dependency of KL pluck
Page 13 and 14: The cost of processing is compensat
Page 15 and 16: Chart-1 Forms of tobacco consumptio
Page 17 and 18: manufactured in coastal Orissa . M.
Page 19 and 20: One can further see from the two fo
Page 21 and 22: 7.Implications of the crisis: While
Page 23 and 24: Chart-8 Bidi production by M/S. Cee
Page 25 and 26: Chart-12 Total production of bidi b
Page 27: production accounts for less than 1
Page 31 and 32: This is obviously because Orissa ha
Page 33 and 34: The Orissa Kendu Leaves Purchasers
Page 35 and 36: Total export to SL & Pak. and the s
Page 37 and 38: In Kadamdihi phadi under Kadamdihi
Page 39 and 40: manufacturers prefer bundles of les
Page 41 and 42: feeling in bidi smoking. And this h
Page 43 and 44: 9..3..2: Non-smoking utilities: It
Page 45 and 46: increased target for phal productio
Page 47 and 48: of this kind has been done in many
Page 49 and 50: though the intention behind such re
Page 51 and 52: ANNEXURE 50
Page 53 and 54: Year Annexure-2 Production, deliver
Page 55 and 56: Year Annexure-6 Sale value of KL To
Page 57 and 58: Annexure-10 Export of KL by Nationa
Page 59 and 60: Annexure-13 Qualitative production
Page 61 and 62: concurrent lease has not been grant
Page 63 and 64: Annexure-19 Media’s concern over
Page 65 and 66: Annexure-21 Concern over the implic
Page 67 and 68: Annexure-23 Media concern over the
Page 69 and 70: Annexure-25 Media concern over the
Page 71 and 72: (Note: The above matter was publish
Page 73 and 74: Annexure-27(contd.) Letter of M/S.

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

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