Tea auction centre to come into operation this year

Kathmandu, Nov. 6: The government is all set to establish the Tea Auction Centre, which has been in discussion for the last four years, in the eastern tea region in the current Fiscal Year (2018/19).

The centre was first said to be in operation in 2015, and the National Tea and Coffee Development Board (NTCDB) had planned to launch the auction house on April 28, 2015, National Tea Day.

But the project has been delayed due to non-cooperation from the Ministry of Agriculture and the tea industries.

With the tea auction facility, the tea farmers will get the fair price of their product as multiple buyers compete to buy their tea.

RP Chaudhary, Deputy Director of the NTCDB, said that the auction centre would come into operation from this year.
“Hardware, physical structure and software required for the centre are in place. The facility has a separate warehouse as well,” he said.

According to him, some tea businessmen did not cooperate with the government and the tea farmers in running the centre since they were involved in smuggling the tea to the bordering cities in India.

“They had been earning a handsome amount of money from illegal trading of tea. They showed their reluctance as they had to pay the tax if they bought the tea from the auction centre in a transparent manner,” said Chaudhary.

“The auction will promote transparency in the business and help the farmers with better prices,” he said.

Chaudhary also said that the collective brand of Nepal Tea would be implemented at the earliest.

Current price of green tea leaf does not give an incentive to the farmers, Dr. Shiva Sharma, president of National Labour Academy who has long been involved in the study of tea quality and market in Nepal, said at an interaction on ‘functional and procedural reforms in business related to tea sector’ organised by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) the other day.

“The government and the entrepreneurs should create a policy framework for benefit sharing with the labourers and farmers,” he said.

According to him, farmers in the value chain are largely ignored.

The ‘NepalTea’ logo designed and aimed to promote Nepali orthodox tea in the international market was designed by the Himalayan Orthodox Tea Producers’ Association (HOTPA) about a decade ago, and the government had endorsed it later due to its attractive design.

But small holder tea farmers were wrongly informed that the logo would be used by the HOTPA members only and they protested, said Nabin Kumar Karna, National Programme Coordinator of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

ILO had supported the government in designing the logo.

According to the tea farmers, the confusion was created as the government did not hold any interaction with the small holders and entrepreneurs.

But the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC) said that the country did not have standards provision for the orthodox tea, and maintained that it should have one in order to send the Nepali tea in the international market.

Experts are calling for harmonising the standards in the international markets.

CNI president Satish Kumar More said that the laws related to the tea production, marketing and labour should be made flexible.

 Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 7 November 2018.