Source: Hueiyen News Service / Agency
Guwahati, May 19 2009:
Export of Assam tea to the European countries has hit another hurdle with the European Tea Committee "red-listing" a few more chemicals which are commonly used in the production of the beverage in the state.
This was conveyed to a Tea Research Association (TRA) delegation by the European committee at a meeting in London early this month.
India exports nearly 60 million kg of tea to the European countries and the bulk of the produce is from Assam and Darjeeling.
Mridul Hazarika, the director of Tocklai Experimental Station, said it was almost impossible for Assam tea to survive without the use of these chemicals because of the sub-tropical climatic condition in the state where the use of these chemicals are necessary to away with pests.
Hazarika was a part of the delegation to London.
The chemicals which are being "red-listed" by the panel are dicofol, endosulfan, ethion, fenazaquin and paraquot among others.
While dicofol is commonly used to control red spiders, endosulfan, ethion, paraquot and fenazaquin are used to check the deadly helopeltis, commonly called the tea mosquito.
Earlier, the committee had banned the use of alphamethrin, cypermethrin, metasistox and acephate, among others.
All these chemicals are used as pesticides.
The Tocklai director said the TRA delegation had appealed to the committee to review its decision as the tea industry employed nearly five million people and therefore its sustainability was important for the country.
Hazarika said the industry must think of alternative chemicals if the new set of guidelines issued by the tea panel had to be followed.
"Since the tea bushes in Assam are exposed to various pests, the use of some of these chemicals is very important.
We have little choice now but to look for alternatives if we have to retain our European market," the director said.
Sources in the industry said that although there were substitutes to some of the chemicals red-listed by the panel, those chemicals were too costly.
"The cost of production would increase manifold if we use the substitutes.
It is almost impossible to use these substitutes," a planter in tea-rich Sonari in Sivasagar district told The Telegraph.
India's tea exports to Europe have been facing increasing resistance from importers keen on ensuring that the products conform to the minimum residual level (MRL).
Several consignments of tea to the European countries were rejected in the past after contents of banned chemicals were found above the MRL.