Kolkata, June 22 (IANS): The Darjeeling tea industry is expected to lose 20 per cent of its premium quality annual production and 40 per cent of its annual revenue due to the ongoing indefinite shutdown called by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, tea planters said. All plucking and manufacturing operations in the 87 gardens have been reported suspended since June 9. According to planters, whatever the industry has lost so far cannot be recovered. So the annual production was expected to take a hit. The premium second flush period of production started from end of May to Mid July and the tea is known for its muscatel flavour which is produced in the month of June. “This is a season for producing high value second flush tea. All the gardens are closed in the peak season resulting in a huge loss to the industry,” Darjeeling Tea Association’s (DTA) Chairman Vinod Mohan told IANS. “Even if the gardens open tomorrow, our losses will not be curtailed. The harvest has already been overgrown which will be of no use. We have to wait for the next harvest, which will take another eight to 10 days,” Mohan said. The first and second flush are considered as the premium flush contributing about 45 per cent of the annual production and the tea produced in these seasons is mostly exported. “Literally, there was no harvest in the second flush period which contributes about 20 per cent of the annual production and around 40 per cent in annual revenue of the industry,” DTA’s Secretary General Kaushik Basu told IANS. “Due to the uncertainty, we do not know how much would be produced in the second flush period. We may lose the entire harvest during this period,” Basu said. In the last calendar year, the Darjeeling tea industry produced 8.13 million kg of tea.