JHAPA, Dec 10: Stakeholders have warned that the tea industry, the largest foreign exchange earner in agricultural products after cardamom, is facing a crisis.
This concern has been raised at a time when the National Tea and Coffee Development Board (NTCDB) targets to bring in foreign currency twice as much in the current fiscal year 2080-81 compared to previous fiscal year.
Harka Tamang, a tea farmer, said the government does not list tea as an agriculture product and imposes electricity tariffs as high as those for an industry hence affecting irrigation. Furthermore the absence of an auction market is obstructing access to the international market.
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Likewise, Central Vice President of All Nepal Trade Union Bhupal Sapkota blames the NTCDB for not playing an effective role in solving the problems of tea industrialists, businessmen, farmers and workers.
Furthermore, the central president of Nepal Tea Plantation Workers' Union, Deepak Tamang, accused the state of being apathetic in solving the problems of the tea sector. He complained that even the Board has not coordinated the implementation of the law while the workers of some plantations are not even getting wages as per the Labor Act.
Meanwhile, the executive director of the Board, Bishnu Prasad Bhattarai, pledged to play an effective role in solving the existing problems in the tea sector and properly address all the problems raised by the stakeholders.
According to the statistics maintained by the Board, the country earned Rs 3.80 billion in foreign exchange through tea export last fiscal year. The main markets of Nepali tea are India, China, Sri Lanka, Russia, and the Netherlands.
Tea is planted on an area of 20,237 in Nepal with 99 percent of it produced in Koshi Province. In addition, 30 orthodox tea industries and 38 CTC tea industries employ 70,000 people.
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