More than 80 per cent of the country’s population is said to be agriculture-based but the agro-products contribute only 39.7 per cent to the GDP. This irony can be broken by tea industry.

Tea industry has great prospects for boosting Nepal’s agriculture market, with an annual domestic demand of over 9 million kg. More importantly, it has prospects for elevated demand in foreign markets.

High quality Nepali leaf tea, which tea traders call orthodox tea, continues to be highly sought after in US, Japan and EU nations like Germany. Orthodox tea is high-aroma tea produced in the cool hilly areas, whereas tea manufactured in Terai plains is called CTC Tea, which is generally known as ‘tea’.

“An American research team recently opined that tea is one the three products that can cure Nepal’s poverty. The other two being coffee and non-timber products, basically medicinal herbs,” says Dill Banskota, Secretary of Himalayan Orthodox Tea Producers Association (HOTPA).

“Germany is the most prominent destination for export of Nepali orthodox tea,” said Banskota, while talking to The Himalayan Times, adding, “Almost 76 per cent of German population drink high quality Himalayan orthodox tea.”

Till now India has been the major market for Nepal’s orthodox tea, with attracting 50 per cent of the total exports. Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) and Agro-Enterprises Centre (AEC) estimate that 832,000 metric tonnes of orthodox tea can be exported to India alone.

In the year 2000-01, the country exported 69.5 metric tonnes of tea, worth Rs 23084000. 66,38,082 kilograms of tea has been produced this year, covering 11,997 hectares of land, according to National Tea and Coffee Development Board (NTCDB). But this constitute much less than one per cent of Nepal’s gross domestic product (GDP).

“Though the tea market is alluring, there are hurdles. Proper mechanism for penetrating the international arena is not yet developed,” says Dr Dev Bhakta Shakya, Executive Director, FNCCI-AEC.

“The private sector is not being able to achieve the potential for tea export. The government should promote us in exploring foreign market potential,” said Shakya.

“The international market for tea is almost saturated and our major challenge lies in penetrating this market, which is used to importing tea from the gardens of Darjeeling in India and Sri Lanka.” Shakya said.

Shakya said institutional development is another challenge for the development of Nepalese tea sector. “We should strive to meet the foreign demand, both in terms of quality and quantity,” he added.

“Though we want to support the marketing of tea and coffee, we are unable due to lack of budget,” said Madhav Deep Thapaliya, Planning Officer at NTCDB, while talking to The Himalayan Times. The board is the government arm concerned with tea and coffee. “But we have helped them financially for taking part in some international trade fairs.”

“But many facets are there for us to be optimistic,” said Thapaliya, “The tea gardens of Darjeeling are slowly deteriorating in terms of favourability for tea farming. And the obvious alternative is the moist, cool hilly slopes of Nepal.”

Darjeeling is presently manufacturing around 9 million kilograms of orthodox tea every year while Nepal has to contend with mere one million kilograms. “But Nepal has five times more potential than Darjeeling to produce tea,” said Banskota of HOTPA.

Ilam, Dhankuta, Terhathum, Panchthar and Jhapa are major tea producing areas of Nepal. Presently, the government is giving priority to tea farming in districts other than these. “If a tea farmer wants loan for farming tea in districts other than these five, they get will be charged only five per cent interest rate,” said Thapaliya, “But the rate is ten per cent for these five districts.”

Tea farming of Nepal dates back to around one and a half century, when Late Colonel Gajaraj Singh Thapa, while visiting to Darjeeling, was attracted by the flavour of tea and brought tea farming into Nepal. Today there are hundreds of tea traders in the country.