A member of the Tea Board has proposed a ban on the import of Nepal tea in bulk to India to protect the Darjeeling tea industry.

In a letter written to Union minister of commerce and industry Piyush Goyal, Ashok Goyal suggested import of Nepal teas should only be allowed in packets, with labels clearly mentioning the origin of the product.

Ashok Goyal, recently appointed to the Tea Board, wrote to minister Goyal, the administrative head of all commodity boards as MoC, in his private capacity. Speaking to this newspaper, Ashok Goyal, who hails from Siliguri, said he was aware of the sufferings of the Darjeeling tea industry in the wake of the unabated entry of Nepal tea.

“We must take steps to protect our domestic agriculture and industry. Even though the letter was written by me personally, I will raise the matter in the forthcoming meeting of the Tea Board. Hopefully, there will be a consensus among the members and the Board can then take up the matter formally with the ministry,” he added.

Given that the India-Nepal trade relation is often viewed from the prism of geopolitics and China’s continuous effort to step up clout over India’s Himalayan neighbour, the Darjeeling tea industry’s efforts to curb tea import have yielded little results. Goyal’s letter, consequently, does not seek a complete ban but only on bulk import.

“This will eliminate the scope of adulteration or labelling of Nepal tea as Darjeeling tea or selling Nepal tea naming Darjeeling tea. With this, Nepal tea could be sold in India only under the label of Nepal origin. With no availability of Nepal tea in bulk, there would be no scope of adulteration/relabelling,” the letter read.

Alternatively, the member suggested that India could consider imposing a 40 per cent duty on all Nepal teas imported to India, the same as the line of 40 per cent duty currently imposed by Nepal on the import of Indian teas in their country.

Import from Nepal stood at 11.74 million kg from January to September 2022 compared with 6.48 million kg in the same period of 2021, representing an 80 per cent jump in volume. However, the import volume pales in comparison to India’s own production of 984.67 million kg, representing only 1.19 per cent.

Many tea growers understand why Darjeeling’s woes get little attention from the decision makers given the import’s minuscule share of the overall tea trade. However, producers from the hill say Darjeeling’s problems are unique. The 87 gardens produced just about 6.6 million kg of tea in 2022, the lowest in two decades, barring 2017 when a political strike closed down gardens for 104 days, causing irreparable loss.

Saddled with low yield and high per unit cost of production, even a couple of million kg of import of Nepal orthodox teas, which resemble Darjeeling teas because of the similar climatic conditions and terrain, causes havoc to demand and prices.

“Poor quality Nepal teas entering the domestic tea market is adversely affecting the sale of Darjeeling teas, which in turn is making the Darjeeling tea industry totally unsustainable,” Atul Asthana, managing director of Goodricke Group, said.

The company owns some of the top gardens in the hills. Ashok Lohia, chairman of Chamong Group, the largest producer of Darjeeling teas, concurred. “I have not seen such a long spell of low return on investment in my long career as a tea planter.”

He argued that it was the domestic market, where cheaper varieties of Nepal teas are often passed off as Darjeeling teas, which has been impacted more than the international market, where protection of GI (geographical indication) has safeguarded the interest of Darjeeling teas.