Darjeeling tea production added up to around 10 million kg in a total 1999 Indian crop of 805 million kg, but it is very strong brand among connoisseurs. So much so that many other varieties were passed off as Darjeelings and worldwide sales figures often exceeded the production.The chairman of Poobang Tea Co Ltd, Mr Pawan Agarwal, said the Nepal tea is being passed off as the Darjeeling variety, which is protected by the comprehensive Certification of Trade Mark scheme launched earlier this year.

Incidentally, most of the private gardens in Nepal are owned by Indian businessmen. Mr Agarwal said the Nepal tea looks Darjeeling varieties and also has some of the flavour, as it grows in the Himalayan belt. But Darjeeling tea is defined as that grown specifically within the geographic boundaries of the eponymous district of West Bengal.

Mr Agarwal said the Nepal tea is selling freely in the Calcutta market in blended as well as unblended forms as Darjeeling tea, but at lower prices. "Even some exporters are shipping such teas as Darjeeling tea after blending it with the real stuff," Mr Agarwal.

He said blending is also a violation of the Tea Board's rules, which specify that tea bearing the Darjeeling logo should be absolutely pure.Agarwal said that, out of the 104 gardens in Nepal, four big ones - Antuvally, Sri Antuvally, Guranassi and Malum - are exporting around 0.36 million kg to India. In addition, Nepspral, a government agency, is exporting around 0.15 million kg.

The Tea Board's controller of marketing, Mr HN Dwivedi, said anyone is free to sell tea of any origin here provided the import duty is paid. But action can be taken against those misusing the Darjeeling brand.

Dwivedi said the Tea Board has no report about Nepal teas being sold in the name of Darjeeling locally or exported. Nepal's leading tea exporting company, Ilum Tea Producers (P) Ltd, has an office here. According to the branch manager, Mr Soumitra Chatterjee, his company imports quality tea from Nepal after paying the duty required, and sells it locally with the proper certificate of origin. Mr Chatterjee said he has no idea whether others are picking up this tea and passing it off as Darjeeling. However, he admitted that the two varieties are identical in many ways. Nepal has a strong history of tea cultivation, with the first gardens coming up in Ilam and Soklim districts, and has been producing quality leaf since 1863. It has a total of 104 tea gardens producing around 1.95 million kg, of which around 39 per cent is consumed by the local population and the rest exported.

The threat for Darjeeling tea is posed by the new gardens that have mushroomed over the last four to five years. In fact, the first leaf can be plucked only when the tea bush is around five years old.

Of the 97 private sector gardens in Nepal, 90 per cent are owned by Indian businessmen, and they find it easy to send the tea over to Calcutta.The seven government-owned gardens are run by Nepal Tea Development Corp and produced a total of 6,03,130 kg in 1997-98, down from 9,35,960 kg in 1996-97.