Stakeholders of the north Bengal tea industry on Tuesday flagged several issues related to the sector, including the unchecked entry of Nepal teas into India, before the standing committee of the Union commerce ministry.

Tea stakeholders sought steps from the Narendra Modi government for the growth of the industry.

The standing committee team was led by its chairperson Dola Sen, a Trinamool MP.

The team, sources said, held a similar meeting with representatives of the brew belt in Guwahati on Wednesday. It will attend another meeting in Calcutta on Thursday.

A planter based in Siliguri said that free entry of Nepal tea, being sold in the domestic market and blended and exported from India as Darjeeling Tea, was hurting the Darjeeling Tea industry and the reputation of the world-famous brew.

“We told the committee that such teas from Nepal are being imported freely to India because of the bilateral trade agreement. It is necessary to impose import duties to prevent the indiscriminate influx of Nepal teas, which are affecting the domestic and international markets of Darjeeling Tea,” he said.

Last week, chief minister Mamata Banerjee raised the issue of Nepal teas at the North Bengal Business Meet here and advocated the imposition of duties.

At Wednesday’s meeting, stakeholders also sought generic promotion of tea.

India’s annual per capita tea consumption is around 840 grams, lower than even that of Pakistan, where it is around 1.5 kilos, said a source.

“Tea is a natural health drink. Youths should be encouraged to drink tea. For this, the Centre should take up an extensive generic campaign,” said a representative of a tea planters’ association.

Small tea growers who attended the meeting said there were around three lakh growers in 12 states across India, who contribute around 52 per cent of the national
tea production.

Bijoygopal Chakraborty, the president of the Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers’ Associations (Cista), said they sought the recognition of tea growers as farmers to avail the benefits of government schemes for the latter. Growers wanted the Centre to fix a standard price of tea leaves on the lines of sugarcane so that tea stakeholders do not incur losses.