Nepal, July 6 -- Nepali tea exporters finally experienced some relief following a few weeks of obstacles in exporting their products to India. The arrangement for sample testing of 20 percent of the total consignment is the cause of the respite; otherwise, all export consignments would require testing in Indian food laboratories.

Tea and coffee have been Nepal's rising export products since the early decades of this century, although their cultivation started at different periods. The history of tea plantation goes back to the 1860s during the premiership of Jung Bahadur Rana. The district commissioner of Ilam, also called Badahakim, encouraged farmers to plant tea saplings imported from the Darjeeling district of India, which is in a ju...