Taskforce formed to resolve problems related to tea export

KATHMANDU: The government has formed a taskforce to resolve problems surfaced on export of Nepali tea to India.

Prime Minister Balendra Shah’s press and research expert, Dipa Dahal, informed that the taskforce was formed under the coordination of a joint secretary at Division of Bilateral and Regional Trade under the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply. The members of the panel will be under secretaries from the Office of the Prime Minister, Finance Ministry, Home Ministry, Foreign Ministry, and Ministry of Agriculture, Forest and Environment.

Other members are deputy director general at Customs Department, representatives of Department of Food Technology and Quality Control, Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology, and director at National Tea and Coffee Development Board , and the under secretary responsible for bilateral trade and transit, especially with India. Under secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply has been assigned the member secretary of the panel.

After the Tea Board of India put in place the provision of compulsory quality rest for all tea consignments imported to India, which resulted in storing the tea in depot till the acquisition of ‘SOP’ from laboratory, the Nepali tea farmers and entrepreneurs have been directly impacted.  Storing tea is also charged.

The small and mid-scale tea farmers and exporters have been bearing the brunt with the introduction of this provision as per entrepreneurs. As the consignments are piled up for long at custom points, the freshness and quality of tea diminishes and cost for trade soars. So, the government took the initiative to study the situation and address problems accordingly, said expert Dahal.