A tough decision by India taught a lesson to Nepal! 13 lakh kilos of tea rotting on the border, business stalled

Amid the growing trade dispute between Nepal and India, the Nepal government has finally decided to reopen its closed tea factories. This conflict that started with India had a very bad impact on the entire tea industry of Nepal and the work there almost came to a standstill. Although tea factories have now reopened after strong assurance from the Nepalese government, the tension in the trade relations between the two countries has still not reduced due to India’s strict rules.

In fact, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had issued a new and strict directive on June 23. Under this, ‘Risk Based Checking System’ was implemented for tea falling under HSN code 0902. According to this new rule, 20 percent of the consignment of Nepalese tea coming to India for domestic consumption has been decided to be randomly selected for lab testing with immediate effect.

Nepalese tea industry suffered a severe blow due to Indian strictness

After this decision of the Indian government, Nepali tea industry has suffered a big blow. According to a report in Kathmandu Post, Nepali tea exporters are facing extremely long delays at the Indian border as tea vehicles and consignments are stopped at the border for lab testing. People associated with this industry say that at present about 3 lakh kilograms of processed (finished) tea is stuck in the warehouses of India, while in Nepal itself the stock of more than 10 lakh kilograms of tea has been accumulated.

Due to these disruptions and uncertainty, tea processors in the Ilam region of Nepal had completely closed their factories from June 15. After this, the producers of Jhapa also announced to stop work on June 18. This tough stance of India had a direct impact on about 99 tea factories in eastern Nepal and work came to a halt in more than 50 small and big tea gardens. Due to this, the plucking of tea leaves stopped and thousands of workers became unemployed overnight.

How did this whole tea controversy start?

Now that the Prime Minister’s Office and the Council of Ministers of Nepal have given a solid assurance that the government will take immediate diplomatic and administrative steps to remove this export blockage, only then have the factory owners agreed to start the work. This entire controversy started with a new rule of the Tea Board of India. Under this rule, mandatory lab testing of every tea consignment coming from Nepal to India is being done.

Earlier, India used to test only 5 to 20 percent random samples and if a truck passed, the entire consignment was given the green signal. But now due to the changed rules, samples are being taken from every truck parked at the border and sent directly to the central lab in Kolkata for testing.

Difficulties increased due to lack of international lab in Nepal

The biggest problem facing Nepal is that it currently does not have any internationally recognized lab. In such a situation, it is taking a long time of 15 to 20 days to send the samples taken from the border to Kolkata and get the report from there. Due to this long delay, the tea lying in trucks and warehouses has started spoiling. Due to this reason, about 13 lakh kilos of Nepali tea got stuck at the border and was on the verge of rotting.

The impact of this strictness of India seems to be very serious on the economy of Nepal. More than 100 tea factories and estates in Jhapa and Ilam districts of eastern Nepal are on the verge of complete closure. This has created a direct threat to the livelihood of about 60,000 daily wage labourers. Not only this, the price of green tea leaves in Nepal has also skyrocketed from Rs 40 to Rs 60 per kg to Rs 15 per kg, due to which the poor farmers there are facing huge losses worth crores of rupees every day.

Indian tea producers exposed, lodged serious complaint

The complaint of Indian tea producers in this whole matter was very serious. His allegation was that very cheap and low quality tea was being brought to India from Nepal and mixed with India’s world famous premium ‘Darjeeling Tea’. Due to this adulteration, the image of Indian tea brands was getting tarnished in the international market. Apart from this, the investigation also revealed that the quantity of banned pesticides and harmful chemicals in Nepali tea was much more than the prescribed standards, which is also dangerous for health. For this reason the Indian Government had to take this strict step.