News Desk :
A record tea yield of 14.5 million kg in October has emboldened officials in Bangladesh for the first time to eye an annual production of 100 million kg this year.
Low prices at auctions, however, have the tea estate owners languishing in losses despite the rise in production. To ensure fair prices, traders demand an end to tea smuggling into the country.
Bangladesh adopted the Roadmap to Development: Bangladesh Tea Industry in 2017, setting 140 million kg production in 2025 as a target, reports bdnews24.com.
According to the Bangladesh Tea Board, the previous monthly production record was 13.4 million kg in 2019.
October’s record haul accumulated to 79.3 million kg tea produced this year, exceeding the 2021 target of 77.7 million kg with two months to spare.
In 2020, Bangladesh produced 86.3 million kg tea, which was lower than the 2019 haul of 96 million kg.
Tea estates in Bangladesh grew more than 12.3 million kg each month from June to October this year. The rate puts the possibility of reaching the 100 million
kg milestone within touching distance.
Bangladesh Tea Board Chairman Maj Gen Md Ashraful Islam said such yields have been possible due to higher-than-normal rainfall.
“Weather was favourable in September-October this year. It rained as needed, when we needed it,” said Jahar Tarafder, general secretary at the Tea Traders and Planters Association of Bangladesh in Sreemangal.
The greater Sylhet region has 136 of the country’s 167 tea estates – 91 in Moulvibazar, 25 in Habiganj and 19 in Sylhet. And there are 21 more in Chattogram, eight in Panchagarh, two in Rangamati and one in Thakurgaon.
The demand for tea is going up every year. The Tea Board said the demand was 86 million kg in 2017 when Bangladesh produced almost 79 million kg. It rose to 90.45 million kg in 2018 before climbing to 95 million kg the following year.
It dropped to 84 million kg last year amid the pandemic but the export leapt to 2.17 million kg in 2020 from 600,000 kg in 2019.
However, only 500,000 kg tea was exported until October this year.
Chairman of Bangladeshiyo Cha Sangsad or BCS, an association of tea estate owners, Md Shah Alam said they lean less towards export as buyers propose almost half of their asking price.
“They want to buy tea at less than Tk 100 per kg. It is not possible to agree to it due to rising expenditure. So exports have gone down.” He said that sales at lower-than-expected prices and a drop in domestic demand amid the pandemic were causing losses to the industry.
“The production cost exceeds Tk 200 a kg in many estates. The average selling price of each kg hovers around Tk 170-180 as per quality.”
According to Tea Board accounts, the average auction price of tea leaves in 2018-19 fiscal was Tk 297, but it plunged to Tk 169 the following year. This year it is being auctioned at Tk 197 per kg.
Tarafder said tea leaves are being smuggled inside the country through the border, which is causing losses to the estate owners.
“Tea leaves are entering the country on trucks through illegal routes. These are avoiding entrance through excise or customs duty.” “The market would have been competitive if they arrived legally.”
On the illegal arrival of tea leaves, Ashraful said mobile courts have been deployed near the borders two months ago to stop illegal trades of tea and its sale out of the auction.”
Tarafder said Bangladesh produces 1,600-1,700 kg of raw tea leaves every hectare whereas India yields 3,000-3,200 kg per hectare.
