Tea war between Nepal and West Bengal

Under pressure from Darjeeling producers, India’s Ministry of Commerce is blocking imports from Nepal, ostensibly for “quality control”, seriously damaging the Himalayan country's economy. Yet, India itself actually needs to supplement its production to meet the volumes demanded by the global market and sells Nepali tea marketing it as its own.

Kathmandu (AsiaNews) – Nepal’s "tea war" with India, which recently severely restricted one of the key export sectors of its economy, remains a source of tensions in the Himalayan country.

After at least a thousand tonnes of tea ready for export from Nepal or already delivered remained stuck in warehouses, India’s Ministry of Commerce eased inspection for teas that could be re-exported from India, even if not locally produced.

The trade crisis, triggered by India's unilateral change to regulations and its requirement to test each batch shipped, has brought a long-running dispute to a head.

In 2017, a formal request to halt imports from Nepal was made to then-Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, during a meeting with the Darjeeling Tea Association, which oversees the production of this prized tea in India’s pre-Himalayan region.

This request was repeated in 2019 by a member of the West Bengal state legislative assembly, citing the alleged "inferior quality" of the imported product compared to the local one. Further attempts followed, unsuccessfully, to thwart a significant and essential import to supply the Indian market with tea and control its price.

Starting in 2024, testing was made mandatory for all consignments of Nepali tea arriving at Indian Customs, and in June last year, West Bengal questioned the product's duty-free status under the bilateral trade agreement, prompted by the alleged damage to the tea industry resulting from the sale of Nepali tea in India and abroad as Darjeeling tea.

This is no small issue, given that production of this product is estimated at only 6,000 tonnes per year, and the tea coming from Nepal has long supported the strong foreign demand that India is unable to meet.

For their part, those who oppose tea imports argue that inferior Nepali tea is mixed with Indian tea, concerns that are, however, poorly supported by any technical evidence and are motivated, as with other products, by political and commercial considerations, since India receives 80 percent of its neighbour's tea exports.

In fact, Nepal tea's potential competition on global markets is limited precisely by its export commitment to India, estimated last year at nearly 16,000 tonnes for various varieties out of the 27,000 tonnes produced by an estimated 60,000 workers.

With respect to Darjeeling, traders report that the practice of branding a blend of Indian and Nepali tea as Darjeeling is nothing new, partly due to the decline in Indian production and the closure of several tea-producing companies in the original growing area of ​​northeast India.

• india
• nepal
• darjeeling
• tea
• exports
• competition
• quality controls