Germany's Wolfgang Heilman has worked as an expert in raw tea and coffee processing and production for the last 30 years, specialising in mechanical and thermal process engineering, food packaging technology and quality assurance. He spoke to Nepali Times last week during his visit here to address a seminar on Nepal's tea industry.

Nepali Times: How do you rate Nepal's tea quality?
Wolfgang Heilman: Nepal's tea is of really high quality, especially that from east Nepal, which has a better taste than Darjeeling tea. The prospects for exporting Nepali tea are really good.

Most tea-producing countries are focussing on instant and organic tea products. Should Nepal also look that way?
I believe that instant tea production is possible in Nepal. You have 6 million kg of tea available for such production and on top of that, Nepal can afford to sell at a lower price than other countries. Most importantly, Nepal's tea quality is so high that even if you sell instant tea at market price you can still compete with others.

Can we compete with China and India?
The main difference between China, India and European companies is the labour cost, which is very low in Nepal. So this is where the competition ends.

Where are the best markets for Nepal's tea?
Europe especially. If you start producing organic tea, then there will be more opportunity. Europeans are becoming more interested in organic products.

You visited manufacturing plants in Nepal. What was your impression?
Some of the machines have been running for many years and should be replaced. I was however impressed with a green tea factory that has expensive Japanese equipment. You have to keep in mind that the market for green tea is increasing a lot while that for black tea is declining.

But can Nepal afford to upgrade those machines?
In principle, it is a huge investment. For the time being, all the machines are being supplied by India, even though they are very expensive.

Your organisation, Senior Expert Services, has provided technical advice and training to a number of tea and coffee producing countries. Any concrete results?
Our purpose is to transfer the knowledge of retired managers to the firms because after working for 30 years you are able to share that knowledge easily..We helped Ethiopia build a coffee factory, which has been very successful at exporting. We also played a role in the decaffeinisation of tea, just starting in China and Guatemala's industry, which is building a factory on roasting and packaging.

What should Nepal do to improve exports?
Nepal should focus on two things. First, it needs good functioning industries free from bureaucracy and corruption. Second, you need good international marketing. Germany's famous mountaineer Reinhold Messner has been taking the initiative to tell German people that Nepal is not only about the Himalaya but also about high-quality tea and agro-food products.Nepal is a well-known in Germany, so in principle, Germany should be a good market. The only thing this country should manage is its political situation and things will be easy.

But isn't it difficult to establish a market in Europe?
Absolutely not. We are a very free and open market, as long as you follow quality and legal restrictions. We don't like pesticides in tea and coffee. There's also a market for low-cost tea products because there are also poor people in Germany who are interested in cheaper tea.