Nepal
A Himalayan origin whose eastern growing districts sit on the same ridge system as Darjeeling, producing teas of closely comparable character under a name that carries far less trade recognition.
Production, trade and price
| Measure | Year | Value | Basis | Published by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harvested area | 2023 | 20,230 ha | FAOSTAT QCL element 'Area harvested' for item 667 / CPC 01620 'Tea leaves', in hectares. FAO's methodology note warns that for permanent crops such as tea 'data may refer to total planted area' rather than area actually harvested, so this is the area under tea and not necessarily the area picked in the year. The associated crop is measured as green leaf. FAOSTAT flags this cell A, an official figure reported by the country. | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Statistics Division |
| Production | 2023 | 129,177 t imputed | FAOSTAT QCL element 'Production' for item 667 / CPC 01620 'Tea leaves', in tonnes. FAO's QCL methodology note states the domain 'contains production data for primary products', so this counts GREEN LEAF as plucked, not made tea. It is roughly four to five times the made-tea figure the same country's tea board publishes. FAOSTAT flags this cell I, a value imputed by a receiving agency; the country did not report it. | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Statistics Division |
| Yield | 2023 | 6,386 kg/ha estimated | FAOSTAT QCL element 'Yield' for item 667 / CPC 01620 'Tea leaves', in kilograms per hectare, computed by FAO from the production and area figures rather than reported directly. Because production is GREEN LEAF and the area may be planted rather than harvested, this is green-leaf yield per hectare planted and is not comparable with a made-tea yield. FAO states that yields of permanent crops 'are not as reliable as those for temporary crops'. FAOSTAT flags this cell E, a value estimated by the publishing agency rather than reported by the country. | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Statistics Division |
Figures are reproduced as their publisher stated them and are not converted, averaged or ranked. Where two publishers disagree, both rows appear — this comes from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Statistics Division. The largest single trap in tea statistics is that FAO’s series counts green leaf as plucked while national tea boards count finished made tea, and the two differ by roughly a factor of four and a half. The basis column says which each row is, and a figure without it is not comparable to one with it.
How production is organised
Two sectors with different histories. The eastern hill districts are dominated by small farmers selling green leaf to independent processing units, many of them co-operatively owned, and that is where the orthodox speciality tea comes from. The Terai lowland runs conventional estates producing CTC. Nepal's marketing problem follows from the first structure rather than from quality: without estate names to sell under, a great deal of hill orthodox leaf has historically crossed into India and been sold as something else.
How firm this is: Inferred by TeaHQ from general knowledge of the trade rather than taken from a source that states it.
What it produces
Mainly orthodox black tea from smallholders in the eastern hills, with growing quantities of green, white and oolong-style production from the same gardens.
How firm this is: Inferred by TeaHQ from general knowledge of the trade rather than taken from a source that states it. Directionally well established in trade writing; production shares vary by year and are not recorded here.
What it is known for
The categories this country is most associated with. Being known for a category is a fact about reputation and volume rather than about quality.
- Black tea — Tea taken deliberately through full enzymatic oxidation, giving the dark leaf, amber-to-red liquor and malty or brisk character most Western drinkers think of as simply 'tea'.
Growing regions in Nepal
Named districts with their own elevation, climate and character. Elevation figures are recorded as ranges because sources disagree on where a district begins and ends.
How its tea is graded
Nepali producers generally borrow Indian leaf-grade abbreviations and flush terminology, which makes the teas easy to compare with Darjeeling and easy to mistake for it.
Grading conventions do not translate between countries. The same abbreviation can describe leaf size in one origin and picking standard in another, and TeaHQ records each system on its own terms rather than mapping them onto a common scale.
Teas from Nepal
Guides covering this origin
- The bought-leaf factory, and what it does to a grower’s leverage — A factory that buys green leaf from surrounding farms is the hinge of smallholder tea. It is also, in most places, the only buyer a grower can physically reach before the leaf spoils — and that fact shapes the whole relationship.
- Does the growing region change the taste? — Yes, and much less directly than the word terroir implies. Most of what a reader attributes to place turns out on inspection to be cultivar and processing — both of which travel with the place, and neither of which is the place.
Sources
- TeaHQ editorial synthesis — TeaHQ
Everything on this page is TeaHQ’s own synthesis of widely-attested trade and production background. No external document stands behind it, which is why the statements here describe practice rather than assert measurements.