Govinda Chhetri

Jhapa, February 18:

Nepali tea producers and entrepreneurs are delighted to get a separate quota to export tea to Pakistan. Earlier, Pakistan was providing Nepali tea a joint quota with Bangladesh.

The information was provided by a delegation of Nepali tea entrepreneurs who participated in Expo-2005, organised in Karachi from February 3-5. The entrepreneurs included Prakash Giri of Butabari Tea Pvt Ltd, Chadi Prarajuli of Danfe Tea Processing Pvt Ltd, Rajendra Singh Rajbanshi of Budhkaran and Sons Tea Pvt Ltd, Hari Giri of Butabari Tea Company Pvt Ltd, Susabu Tea Pvt Ltd’s Jaya Prakash Sharma, Kalika Tea Pvt Ltd’s Binay Goyal ,Haldibari Tea Pvt Ltd’s Shanta Shakya and Subas Sanghai of Nepal Tea Development Corporation (Sanghai).

Talking to the media after returning from Pakistan, Chandi Parajuli, the executive director of Danfe Tea Processing Pvt Ltd said, “The tea entrepreneurs of Jhapa were in search for a new market. We found that during our visit to Pakistan”.

According to him, they were forced to look for new markets after the production of CTC tea in Jhapa surpassed domestic demand. He added that till now, CTC tea from Jhapa was being sent to India alone. “Pakistan does not produce tea but has the highest per person consumption in the SAARC region. Here one person consumes 1.25 kg per year and the total national consumption is 150 million kg”, Parajuli said. Pakistan imports tea mainly from Kenya, Sri Lanka and India. The tea produced in Nepal and Bangladesh has a small presence in the market. Pakistan has exempted tax on Nepali and Bangladeshi products for being underdeveloped countries. For tea originating in other countries, Pakistan levies a 10 per cent tax. Bangladesh was making most of the joint annual quota of 1,00,00,000 kg tea. Nepal held only a 10 per cent quota because Bangladesh had better transport facility and enjoyed better relation Pakistan. Besides, Pakistani traders had not given better price to Nepali tea despite a better product quality.

Parajuli said, “Now Nepal will have tax exempted on 40,00,000 kg of tea each year and Pakistani traders have agreed to pay higher price for Nepali tea”.