By Sutanuka Ghosal

Copyright indiatimes

PTIA tea garden

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce has taken up the issue of the rise in import of cheap tea from Kenya and Nepal with the government in a letter written in the last week of August, asking the Tea Board to enforce mandatory labelling and source declaration for all re-exported or blended teas sold in the country.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.Live EventsTrade 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.Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now!
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Read More News ontea importsKenya tea importsParliament panel on tea importsNepal tea importslabelling rules for tea importsTea BoardDirectorate General of Foreign TradeIndian Tea Association

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(You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)Read More News ontea importsKenya tea importsParliament panel on tea importsNepal tea importslabelling rules for tea importsTea BoardDirectorate General of Foreign TradeIndian Tea Association(Catch all the Business News, Breaking News, Budget 2025 Events and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.) Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the ET ePaper online….moreless

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