Hi Blair,

The subject is much more complex than what is generally assumed:

-some of the Nepal teas can be as good or even better as a lot of
Darjeeling teas.Who is to judge?
-the Darjeeling growers are unnecessarily concerned if they produce
the quality they do.
- the market and ultimately the consumer ist to decide what is a good tea.
- the whole talk about integrity and quality is just a cloud to divert
attention from the fact that the growers want to get a larger piece
of the assumedly large pie.
-the Nepalese teas are going to be very successful if they do their job
right.

best

Blair P. Houghton schrieb:
> Who are they protecting he
>
> --Blair
>
> Statesman News Service
> DARJEELING, Dec. 28. - The Tea Board has proposed the formation of a
> 'stakeholders' coordination committee to put an end to smuggling of
> green leaf from Nepal by some Darjeeling tea gardens located in the
> Mirik area.
> The errant tea gardens mix their leaf with cheap Nepal leaf and pass it
> off as Darjeeling tea, which is a violation of the newly instituted
> Geographical Indicator Act as well as the older measure, Certified
> Trade Mark (CTM) that Darjeeling tea as a product enjoys.
> The Tea Board's move complements the efforts that the Darjeeling tea
> industry has been making to protect its product in terms of an
> intellectual property. The Geographical Indicator Act not only affords
> Darjeeling tea an unprecedented level of protection but also obliges
> the industry to protect the integrity of the manufacturing chain.
> The formation of a stakeholders' committee was mooted by Tea Board
> chairman, Mr Basudeb Banerjee, at a meeting of the industry in Siliguri
> recently. Besides the management, the committee will comprise
> representatives from the district administration, law enforcement
> agencies like the police and central excise, Tea Board officials and
> the trade unions, said Mr Sundeep Mukerjee, branch secretary,
> Darjeeling Tea Association (DTA).
> The committee will also look into "all other relevant interests of
> the industry," he added.
> The committee will monitor the movement of green tea leaf in the
> region. According to industry sources, the main violators are three tea
> estates in the Mirik area which borders Nepal. The violating gardens
> claim that they are procuring green leaf from closed tea gardens of
> Darjeeling, when they are actually buying from Nepal.
>