Representatives of the Darjeeling Tea Association (DTA) have sent letters to the Tea Board of India, the customs and the FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) seeking their intervention to check the “indiscriminate import and sale” of Nepalese tea in India.

The DTA’s move is part of a bid to safeguard Darjeeling Tea against the Nepalese variant, said to be of inferior quality, but often passed off as produce from the Queen of the Hills.

DTA chairman Sanjay Prakash Bansal in his letters to the central agencies, has said tea from Nepal is being imported to India and sold in India without proper marking or labels.

Bansal, in his letter to the chief commissioner of customs, Calcutta zone, said trucks loaded with tea from Nepal enter India via the Indo-Nepal borders of Raxaul, Jogbani and Panitanki. The tea doesn’t comply to FSSAI food safety standards, but reach Calcutta and Siliguri warehouses and are sold at local markets.

Bansal also requested the FSSAI that all tea brought in from Nepal be tested to confirm they comply to FSSAI norms.

DTA representatives said that in 2019, around 16 million kilos of Nepal tea were imported in India, of which 5 million kilos were of orthodox variety. Some Nepal teas, particularly those of the orthodox variety, are passed off to retail customers in India as Darjeeling Tea.

“We have never come across any packet or label that says Made in Nepal. That is why we want a complete ban on sale and distribution of imported tea in loose format under the Tea Distribution Export Control Order of 2005,” said Sandeep Mukherjee, principal advisor, DTA.

A tea industry source said they had earlier tried to draw the Centre’s attention to the irregular entry of Nepalese tea to India. With the recent straining of ties between the two countries, Delhi may take note of it now, the source said.

Shanta Chhetri, a Rajya Sabha MP of Trinamul from the hills, last month wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, mentioning the need to regulate and monitor import of teas from Nepal.