ILAM: The 53 tea factories in Suryodaya Municipality will reopen this Friday following a three-point pact to resolve an export deadlock with India.

Under the agreement, the municipality will provide storage for 1 million kilograms of backlogged tea, factories will temporarily defer payments to farmers, and a strict ban on chemical pesticides will be enforced to improve quality.

The crisis began after India mandated individual lab tests for every incoming Nepali tea truck, costing Rs 11,500 and taking over 15 days.

This has left 250,000 kilograms of tea stranded at the border.

India buys 86% of Nepal’s 15.6 million kilograms of exported tea, an industry supporting over 15,000 local farmers.