After wheat, India’s tea shipments get rejection

Falling tea exports from Sri Lanka as a consequence of a monetary disaster opened newer markets for Indian tea; nonetheless, latest rejections of Indian tea could forged a shadow on New Delhi’s efforts to seize new markets.

An official, one of many two cited above, mentioned, nonetheless, that export rejections from India have been extraordinarily low.

“Solely two containers have come again from Taiwan and one from Iran. The utmost residue degree (MRLs) in Taiwan is just too low and exporters are conscious of the danger,” the official mentioned on situation of anonymity.

MRL is the utmost focus of pesticide residue more likely to happen in or on meals and feeding materials after using pesticides.

Exporters mentioned that about 95% of the rejected Indian tea consignment have Quinalphos past the permissible restrict.

“The container that bought rejected in Iran was due to phytosanitary problem. Some unsanitary matter was present in that tea. It was not the fault of the producer, however the exporter is to be blamed,” the official additional added.

Queries despatched to a spokesperson for the commerce and trade ministry remained unanswered until press time.

A former official of Tea Board of India mentioned MRL for the chemical quinalphos is 0.01 mg per kg in India, making it among the many strictest on the planet.

The usual is way increased at 0.7 for the European Union and 0.1 for Japan, the particular person mentioned, including that if Indian producers handle to even deliver the quantity to 0.1, not one of the export shipments will get rejected.

Exporters mentioned India is just not the one nation that finds it powerful to export tea to Taiwan due to their strict MRL requirement. Vietnam and Chinese language shipments additionally get rejected as they discover it troublesome to adjust to Taiwanese norms.

One of many exporters conscious of the event mentioned the rejected container belonged to one among India’s largest tea exporters based mostly out of Kolkata, with out naming the corporate. “Solely two out of 600 containers that his firm shipped bought rejected,” the exporter mentioned.

So far as Iran is anxious, Indian tea is nicely established in Iran, exporters mentioned. Tea Board officers mentioned Sri Lanka was the one competitor within the Iranian market, however with its monetary challenges, the complete Iranian market is up for grabs.

Based on commerce division information, the worth of tea exports has slipped from $785 million in 2017-18 to $700 million in FY21. Consultants identified that the Indian tea trade has seen restricted reforms, and far of the manufacturing and exports are nonetheless finished within the conventional method.

“There are nations that use non-tariff obstacles, however Taiwan and Iran don’t reject Indian tea due to that cause. China rejects massive quantities of India CTC tea, citing chromium content material. Indian tea has traces of chromium due to the chrome steel equipment that we use. And China does it to focus on India,” an exporter who didn’t need to be named mentioned.

In the meantime, the official cited above mentioned tea producers and sellers have been requested to strictly adjust to high quality norms laid down by the Meals Security and Requirements Authority of India (FSSAI). The board has instructed authorities that no tea consignment that has failed on FSSAI take a look at parameters must be launched from the warehouse, he added.