Tea in Nepal: Facts and Figures

Tea in Nepal at a Glance

Where Tea Grows in Nepal

Nepal's tea belt sits in the far east of the country, against the border with India's Darjeeling district. In 1982 the government named five districts, Jhapa, Ilam, Panchthar, Dhankuta and Terhathum, the "Tea Zones of Nepal" [6]. Today tea grows in 31 districts. The eastern core is Ilam, Panchthar, Jhapa, Morang, Dhankuta, Terhathum, Taplejung, Khotang, Okhaldhunga and Bhojpur [1], and newer gardens have spread west to Sindhupalchowk, Kabhrepalanchowk, Makawanpur, Palpa, Gulmi and Pyuthan [3]. Unlike Darjeeling, where estates own their land, almost all Nepali tea is grown on small plots owned by independent farmers, who sell fresh leaf to factories [8].

• Jhapa, in the plains: Nepal's biggest CTC producer [2]. CTC is the strong, granular tea often brewed with milk.
• Ilam, Panchthar and Dhankuta, in the hills: the main orthodox districts, where whole leaves are rolled and dried for black, green, oolong and white teas [2].

→ Read more: Why Ilam Is Nepal's Premier Tea Region

How High Nepal's Tea Gardens Are

A USAID-funded study by ANSAB found that Nepal's orthodox tea is mostly grown between 3,000 and 7,500 feet, about 900 to 2,300 meters [5]. CTC tea is concentrated lower down, in the Terai plains of Jhapa [2]. The hill gardens of Ilam sit on the same ridges as Darjeeling, often only a few miles apart, which is why the two teas are so often compared.

Our own teas are grown in Ilam between 4,000 and 7,500 feet. At that height the leaves grow slowly, and the morning mist that fills these valleys keeps them cool.

Nepal's Tea Flush Calendar

Orthodox tea in Nepal is picked in four seasonal "flushes" [5]. Each one tastes different, even from the same garden.

This is why every bag we sell carries its harvest date. A September tea and a May tea from the same garden are not the same tea. When The New York Times tasted our Spring White Buds, an early spring white tea, it described the cup as carrying "the essence of sweet summer corn slathered with butter" [8].

→ Read more: Nepalese Tea Flavors Through the Seasons

Orthodox vs CTC Tea in Nepal

Nepal makes two kinds of black tea. CTC (crush, tear, curl) is machine processed into small granules. Orthodox tea keeps the leaf whole and is rolled and dried more slowly. By volume CTC is far larger: about 19 million kg a year against about 7 million kg of orthodox [2]. Nepal grows Assam and Cambodian type plants mainly for CTC, and Chinese type plants mainly for orthodox [1].

Only about 1 million kg of orthodox tea a year goes to Europe, the US, Japan and other markets outside India [2]. Historically, much of Nepal's finer whole-leaf tea was sold to Indian merchants and labeled as Darjeeling; the amount of tea sold as Darjeeling is roughly four times the maximum yield of Darjeeling's 87 origin-protected estates [8].

→ Read more: Orthodox vs CTC Tea (Nepal)

History of Tea in Nepal: A Timeline

• 1863 Tea cultivation in Nepal begins with Ilam Tea Estate [6]. The first plantation is credited to Gajaraj Singh Thapa, then Governor General of eastern Nepal [9].
• 1959 Budhhakaran Tea Estate, the first private tea estate, is set up in the Terai [6].
• 1966 The government forms the Nepal Tea Development Corporation, at a time when most Nepali leaf was sold to Indian tea producers [6][10].
• 1978 Nepal's first tea processing factory is built [10].
• 1982 Jhapa, Ilam, Panchthar, Dhankuta and Terhathum are declared the Tea Zones of Nepal [6].
• 1993 The government establishes the National Tea and Coffee Development Board (NTCDB) [6].
• 2015 The government approves a national trademark logo for Nepali orthodox tea on July 13, part of an NTCDB effort to grow exports to markets such as the US [7].

→ Read more: Exploring Nepal Tea and Boston's Tea Heritage

Where Nepal's Tea Is Exported

India buys most of Nepal's tea. In FY 2024/25, tea exports to India were worth about Rs 4.2 billion, almost 87 percent of the total. The other 13 percent went to the EU, the US and East Asia [3]. Processed black tea mostly goes to India; green tea mostly goes elsewhere [3].

Most of the tea bound for India crosses at Kakarbhitta in Jhapa, where tea is the second-largest export after cardamom. Shipments through that crossing fell from 15,311 tonnes (Rs 4.17 billion) in FY 2024/25 to 13,045 tonnes (Rs 3.53 billion) in FY 2025/26, a 15 percent drop in value [4]. Nepal also imports a little tea: 113,000 kg worth Rs 90 million in FY 2024/25 [1].