The committee has said “customs-linked surveillance at ports and regular market audits and sample testing at retail points will help safeguard the reputation of India-origin tea and maintain consumer trust.”
According to the Directorate General of Foreign Trade data, tea imports from Kenya and Nepal have shot up by 57.41% year-on-year to 19.61 million kg in the January to June period of this calendar year.
The committee underlined a pressing need to review the provisions of the Indo-Nepal trade agreement pertaining to tea. At present, tea from Nepal is imported duty free, while Nepal imposes 40% duty on Indian tea export.
Further, low quality Nepalese tea is mixed with Geographical Indication (GI) tagged Darjeeling tea, affecting its brand image. It has suggested that the government needs to implement strict measures to protect the GI tagged Darjeeling tea and impose strict penalties on any violation.
Trade sources said that the cheap Kenyan and Nepal teas are being re-routed in the domestic market flouting the government norm of importing these teas only for re-exporting with value addition. The teas from Kenya are being exported to India at a price $1-1.5 per kg, which is much lower than the price of teas produced domestically.Arijit Raha, secretary general of the Indian Tea Association, said with no checks and balances in place, we cannot entirely rule out the possibility of these imported cheap teas being distributed for domestic consumption.”We have brought this to the notice of the Tea Board. But nothing concrete has shaped up yet. The government should put in place a minimum import price so that the domestic tea prices are not impacted,” said Raha.
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