From May 1, Imported Tea Must Clear a Lab Before It Can Be Sold as Indian
The Tea Board of India has restored mandatory sampling of every imported tea consignment, effective May 1, aimed at the practice of blending cheap Kenyan and Nepali leaf into Indian tea and passing it off as the real thing.
From today, no imported tea can be sold in India or re-exported until it has been sampled, sent to an accredited laboratory, and cleared, under a Tea Board of India directive that takes effect on May 1.
The Board will draw two 500-gram samples from randomly selected containers within 24 hours of a consignment's arrival and send them to NABL-accredited labs for testing against food-safety parameters. The importer pays Rs 11,120 plus tax per sample. A consignment that fails is not returned to trade; it is handled as tea waste under the Tea (Waste) Control Order of 1959. Mandatory physical sampling of imports had been dropped in July 2018 for operational reasons, with only an online clearance certificate issued in the years since. This restores the lab step at the port.
The concern behind the rule is not only safety but honesty about origin. About 39 million kilograms of tea entered India in 2025, roughly 14 million of it from Kenya at an average of about USD 2.14 a kilo and over 11 million from Nepal at about USD 1.95, well below what Assam leaf fetches at auction. Growers' bodies have warned the Board that a large share of this cheap import is being blended into Indian tea and sold, at home and abroad, as Indian. The Consultative Committee of Plantation Associations told the Board that 30 to 35 million kilograms of imported tea are being mixed into roughly 210 million kilograms of Indian tea in ways the label does not disclose.
The law already draws the line. Under the Tea (Distribution and Control) Order of 2005, any tea blended with imported leaf must be sold as multi-origin, not as Indian. Export consignments that mix Indian and imported tea must now declare the fact on the packing and on the accompanying documents, and are open to Board inspection. What the new testing regime adds is a checkpoint the mislabelling has to pass through before it reaches a buyer.
For a drinker seeking Assam, the practical stake is plain. The word on the packet is a claim about where the leaf in it grew, and a market that lets cheap Kenyan and Nepali dust travel under an Indian label makes that claim worth less. A checkpoint at the port is where that claim is either kept honest or quietly abandoned.
Sources: Assam Tribune, Low-quality tea imports raise re-export fears; tea board issues SOP; World Tea News, 288% Jump in Kenyan Tea Imports to India Raises Alarm Bells; TeamLease RegTech, Tea Board India notified mandatory Quality Testing for Imported Tea under Government Directive.