Farmers hit hard by Indian restriction in eastern Nepal

Farmers of Eastern Nepal are hit hard by the Indian restriction on the exports of Nepali agriculture products including tea and other goods, local media reported in Kathmandu Tuesday.

"The Indian security personnel have refused to allow the Nepali tea and seasonal vegetable to be taken across the border for last one month," state-run Radio Nepal reported.

"Nepali tea traders have had to bear huge losses as they are forced to sell thousands of kilograms of green tea to domestic factories at low price," the radio quoted Shyam Bhandari, a local tea trader at Illam district, some 400 km east of Kathmandu, as saying.

The green tea has high demand in India, Bhandari noted.

The customs point situated at Pashupatinagar town of the district has also revealed that it was losing revenues that are acquired out of the export of agriculture goods.

However, Indian security forces said that they stopped the supply due to lack of plant quarantine in the Indian border, the radio reported.

Source: Xinhua