The 3rd International Tea Festival held in Kathmandu, Nepal, took place early April 2018 with involvement from the government of Nepal together with National Tea and Coffee Development Board (NTCDB) in association with Himalayan Orthodox Tea Producers Association (HOTPA), Himalayan Tea Producers Co-operatives (HIMCOOP), Specialty Tea Association Nepal (STAN), Nepal Tea Planters Association (NTPA) and Central Tea Co-operatives Federation (CTCF) in the presence of International Delegates, National stakeholders and concerned organizations of Nepal Tea.

Following my amazing trip to Nepal with this group, I have returned with beautiful photos, of course! (Click here for previous post and links to some photo albums.) Now, it is important to share details of the various government and business entities of Nepal particularly applicable to the tea industry.  In this week’s post, please find mention of several organizations that play a role in the industry, its organization, or marketing of Nepal tea. Future posts will be more informative about Nepal, its geography, tea growing regions, and what makes tea from Nepal unique.

National Tea and Coffee Development Board (NTCDB)
“National Tea and Coffee Development Board (NTCDB) is a commodity board established on 1993/06/02, under the aegis of Ministry of Agricultural Development, by Tea and Coffee Development Board Act 1992 of Nepal. The broad objective of this board is to promote and strengthen the Tea and Coffee sector through policy formulation, technical and managerial support.  With an aim of creating a hub for Tea and Coffee sectors, NTCDB had re-designed its website to include the directorates of all the producers, processors, packagers, traders and so on.” 

A list of organizations may be found here:

http://www.teacoffee.gov.np/en/detail.php?section=tea&nav_id=26&nav_name=organisations

A list of tea producing cooperatives may be found here:

http://www.teacoffee.gov.np/en/detail.php?section=tea&nav_id=34&nav_name=directory

NTCDB OBJECTIVES may be found here:

http://www.teacoffee.gov.np/en/detail.php?section=nav&nav_id=3&nav_name=objectives

NTCDB FUNCTIONS may be found here:

http://www.teacoffee.gov.np/en/detail.php?section=nav&nav_id=4&nav_name=functions

CLICK HERE for a more in depth document regarding Nepal Tea Export Strategy 2017

Specialty Tea Association Nepal (STAN)
“The geo-climatic condition of mid hills of Nepal is extremely suitable for producing exclusive tea.  The government of Nepal had introduced a small holders’ scheme with a support package in the eastern district in 1979. With the initiative of small farmers, it has been extended in many other districts of Mid and Western regions of Nepal.  The average land holding size of Nepalese high grown tea farmers is 0.75 ha, and the size of marginal farmers is even less. Nearly 80% of the green leaf is produced by the small tea holders. Therefore the role of small and marginal farmer is very important in high grown tea sector in Nepal.

STAN is guided by the philosophy of “Small is Beautiful” and “Quality Pays”. STAN applies approaches to locally manageable technological changes and extends as well as scale up business opportunity at grassroots that helps value addition without disturbing nature. STAN promotes orthodox tea as sustainable eco-friendly products, introducing innovative ideas in production and ensuring a justified share to marginal farmers.

STAN TEA HUB P. Ltd, is established as an marketing consortium of Specialty Tea Association of Nepal (STAN) with a mission of promoting small farmers exclusive teas. It aims to supply fresh and consistent quality tea in national as well as international market: The company strictly sells only the tea approved by the tasting panel in CLEANING & BLENDING HOUSE managed jointly by STAN members and marketing team (STAN Teahub)”

Learn more about the actions and activities of STAN here:
http://stanthub.com/index.php/about-us/

Himalayan Orthodox Tea Producers Association (HOTPA),Himalayan Tea Producers Co-operatives (HIMCOOP)

“HIMCOOP is a joint marketing consortium of Orthodox tea producers of Nepal. It was established in 2003 out of the need to link producers of high quality teas to buyers in the international arena.  HIMCOOP forwards samples right throughout the season to buyers all over the world and also provides any information required on Nepal tea and the Nepal tea industry."

Central Tea Co-operatives Federation (CTCF)

“The history of Nepalese tea began with the first tea plantation in Ilam tea estate during the reign of Junga Bahadur Rana in 1920 B.S (1963 A.D.) by Gajraj singh Thapa who brought seeds of tea from China as gift. The Tea plantation gradually explored various districts of Nepal at small scale farmers’ level since 2028 B.S. (1971 A.D.). The five districts of Eastern Development Regions viz. Ilam, Jhap, Panchthar, Tehrathum and Dhankuta were declared as "Tea Zones” of Nepal by his majesty late King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev in 2039 B.S.( 1982 A.D.), after which the number of tea farmers involvement was tremendously increased which resulted in the establishment of tea farmers groups and cooperatives. Similarly, Nepal Government declared the first tea policy in 2057 B.S. after which there was rise in number of farmers, tea farmers groups, cooperatives and tea cooperatives processing factories.

To assist the different primary tea cooperatives in respect of economy, social, educational, cultural and business development, the first meeting took place in the year 2066.02.24 ( June 7, 2009) in collaboration of District Tea cooperative Federation and other primary tea cooperatives. After the second meeting that took place in Ilam, Central Tea cooperative Federation (CTCF) was established and registered in 2010, September 16th under cooperative department of Nepal Agriculture and Ministry of cooperative with registration number -18/067/068, to work as an umbrella organization for all the tea cooperatives of Nepal. CTCF has set the vision “Sustainable Tea Cooperative, Prosperous Farmers"  and made strategies to  increase the cooperative participation and contribution to achieve 2030 agendas of sustainable development goals to provide quality services to member cooperatives, develop skilled human resources and develop organizational capacities of member cooperatives.

Target groups of CTCF are around eighteen thousand small tea farmers groups and cooperatives who are situated in rural areas of Nepal. The Federation aims to affiliate all these small tea farmers to organize in one umbrella and run their organic tea farming that will assist in social change, economic upgrade, cultural transformation and creating a sustainable environment for its member cooperatives.

The Federation as an umbrella organization will assist in institutional development of cooperatives, increase in production, technology transfer, marketing, cooperation and networking. In addition to this, it will also have dialogue, interaction with the state and relevant agencies to make policy changes and reform in acts/legislation for the benefit of tea cooperatives and farmers involved in organic tea farming.”

Continue to follow this blog and current issues of The Tea House Times to learn more about Nepal tea. Sign up to receive email at the top of our home page.

For more information, please visit:  https://teanepal.com

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For the Love of Tea. . .

~ Gail Gastelu, The Tea House Times
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GAIL GASTELU is Publisher of The Tea House Times, Producer of TeaCourse.com continuing education and TeaEtiquetteCertified.com online tea etiquette certification. She also produces and presents Tea Course Fast Track in person. Gail provides numerous other products and services to connect businesses and consumers to everything tea. Gail lives in NJ with her husband and two children. Her motto is "Just Do It!"



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