Nepali Tea Exports Resume After India Eases Testing Rules

Kathmandu. Nepali tea exports had been halted for the past 19 days in the name of testing. The Indian Tea Board, by issuing a new notice (Corrigendum-2) on Tuesday (May 19), has eased the knot in Nepali tea exports by amending the mandatory quality testing provision.

Following India's implementation of a rule from May 1 that mandated mandatory testing of Nepali tea at all its borders and prohibited the movement of goods until the report was received, Nepali tea was stranded.

Why was the tea stopped?

According to the 'Standard Operating Procedure' (SOP) issued by the Indian Tea Board on February 10 and implemented from May 1, every consignment of imported tea had to be mandatorily tested.

Previously, samples were collected and tested 'randomly', but the new rule required tea from every vehicle to be sent to the laboratory, and with the report taking about 10 to 15 days to arrive, exports came to a standstill. Nepali tea traders called this an 'undeclared blockade' by India.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve the problem

After the tea exports were stopped, tea entrepreneurs in Nepal and the Nepali Embassy in India continuously exerted pressure. According to Shiva Kumar Gupta, Vice President of the Nepal Tea Producers Association and a tea exporter, the Nepali Embassy coordinated with the Indian Ministry of Commerce.

चियामा भारतको अघोषित नाकाबन्दी, अर्बौँको नेपाली चिया जोखिममा

'The Indian government and its Tea Board inquired about the problems faced by Nepal. We informed them about the issues,' he told Ratopati. Subsequently, a joint meeting of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, Customs, and the Tea Board was held. Gupta stated that the meeting decided to relax the mandatory testing rule.

What is in the Indian Tea Board's new directive?

According to the new 'Corrigendum' issued by the Indian Tea Board, the export process will now proceed. For tea sold in India's domestic market, the Tea Board will no longer conduct mandatory testing. Instead, Indian Customs and the Food Safety Department will collect samples randomly according to their 'Risk Management System'. If the tea is intended to be sent to a third country via India, the Tea Board will mandatorily test its quality. The board has stated that laboratories must upload the test report to the online system within 5 days of receiving the sample.

Impact of the 19-day obstruction

The 19-day halt in tea exports caused great concern in the Nepali tea sector. However, as May is just the beginning of the tea season, many vehicles were not piled up at the customs. Vice President Shiva Kumar Gupta said, 'We had not even loaded the goods, as the vehicle could not proceed without the board's report. But millions of kilos of prepared tea were piled up in the factories. If it had been delayed for a few more days, the quality of the tea would have deteriorated, and there would have been significant problems in farmer payments.'

Approximately 5 to 6 billion rupees worth of tea is exported from Nepal to India annually. CTC tea from Jhapa and Orthodox tea from Ilam constitute a large share of this.

With India adopting a flexible approach to testing rules, traders are confident that tea exports will resume from the border starting Wednesday. This decision has brought relief to about 30,000 tea farmers and dozens of tea industrialists in Nepal. However, traders demand that the government sign a separate quality certification agreement with India to ensure a long-term market for Nepali tea.