ILLAM, March 13: Tea entrepreneurs of Ilam district have voiced concern over government's apathy towards addressing the problems facing the tea estate here.
They complained that the government has not put the tea sector on priority and their organic tea produce has not received proper price while exporting to foreign countries.
Lack of conservation area for rare tea plant
"Our quality tea production was not evaluated well", said Uddhav Chapagain, manager of Gorkha Tea Estate based in Fikkal. He further added that the government did not heed to their demand of fixing proper price of tea.
Likewise, proprietor of Himalayan Shangri-La Tea Estate Ram Chandra Nepal said majority of tea farmers have been compelled to sell their product on lower rate with the government ignoring the development of the sector.
However, Chairperson of Central Tea Cooperative Association Govidna Dahal said the quality production of tea could get proper price in the market "There is still a good market of tea if quality and branding is not compromised."
There are around 30,000 tea farmers including big and small in Ilam and their produce ast year was around 6.5 million kilograms. RSS
