Status of Tea Industry in South Asia and the Potential and Challenges of Nepal’s Tea Production and Trade

Camellia sinesis tea is one of the main agricultural export commodity for South Asian countries including Nepal. Tea production in Nepal started over 150 years ago, but its commercial scale production is still at its infancy with indications for future expansions. Nepal, in addition to other top tea producing countries such as India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, has a huge potential of producing quality tea. To strengthen the potential of the South Asian countries as the global leader in tea industry, the South Asian Association for the Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Tea Council will be established to support the National tea boards of each member countries in promoting and establishing tea products as an important agricultural export commodity of the region. In anticipation of the establishment of SAARC, this study was conducted to analyze the international trade of South Asian tea industries with special emphasis on the emerging Nepalese tea industry. This paper reviews the status of tea production, consumption and exports in South Asian nations, and compares the potential and strengths of each South Asian countries. The objective is to analyze the trends of production, consumption and export in/from Nepal, compare it with other South Asian nations and identify opportunities and threats of the industry in the near future.