Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh is failing to export tea at an expectable level despite increase of production as the use of tea is increasing in the country.
Home consumption of tea went up rapidly due to the economic condition of the country’s people has improved.
Meanwhile, the government has taken special initiatives to increase the production of tea and research has been intensified in inventing new and improved varieties of tea.
Farmers are also being encouraged to cultivate tea in new areas.
According to data from the Bangladesh Tea Board, the country exported 15.1 lakh kilogrammes of tea worth Tk21.032 crore from January to July in 2020, up from six lakh kilogrammes in 2019 and 6.5 lakh kilogrammes in 2018.
Against this backdrop, the government will observe ‘National Tea Day’ on June 4.
“We are not able to export tea though the production of tea has increased. Because the economic condition of the people of our country has improved as the use of tea has increased locally. From breakfast to evening chat, tea has been a favorite drink of this country’s people all day long,” Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said while talking to reporters at the secretariat on Thursday.
There is huge potential for tea industry in the country, he said adding that tea production is becoming possible on lands, which are not suitable for cultivation of other crops.
“If this trend of tea production continues, we will be able to export huge quantity of tea after meeting the domestic demands,” Tipu Munshi said.
Tea is the second largest cash crop in Bangladesh after jute. Apart from Bangladesh, tea is most prevalent in countries like India, China, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Due to this, tea has been produced in Bangladesh for more than 180 years.
At present, there are 167 commercial Tea Production Estates and Tea Gardens on 2,79,507.88 acres of land in Bangladesh, employing about 1.5 lakh workers.
In addition, 3 per cent of global tea is produced in Bangladesh. In 2021, the market size of the tea industry in Bangladesh was about BDT 3500 crore, sources said. However, Bangladesh has set a record in tea production
through producing a total of 96.50 million kilogrammes (kgs) of the world’s one of top commodities in 2021.
According to the Bangladesh Tea Board, efforts of the government, owners and workers to keep productions at the tea plantations normal amid the coronavirus pandemic for the milestone.
The government came to the industry’s rescue with a stimulus package, while the commerce ministry and the board chipped in with regular monitoring and advice to the tea garden management, sources said said.
A record tea yield of 14.5 million kg in October had emboldened officials in Bangladesh for the first time to eye an annual production of 100 million kg, but the industry just fell short.
According to the Tea Board, the government had set a target to produce 140 million kg of tea production by 2025.
October’s record yield accumulated to 79.3 million kg tea produced in 2021, exceeding the last year’s target of 77.7 million kg with two months to spare. In 2020, Bangladesh produced 86.3 million kg tea.
According to sources of Bangladesh Tea Board, such yields have been possible due to higher-than-normal rainfall.
The demand for tea is going up every year. The Tea Board said that 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 in 2020 amid the pandemic but the export leapt to 2.17 million kg in 2020 from 600,000 kg in 2019.
However, only 500,000 kgs of tea were exported until October 2020.
In Bangladesh, the greater Sylhet region has 136 of the 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.
Bangladesh Tea Industry established in 1840 when a pioneer tea garden was inaugurate on the slopes of the hills of Chittagong, where the Chittagong Club in Bangladesh now stands.
The first commercial tea garden was established in 1857 in Mulnichera, Sylhet. During the India-Pakistan partition in 1947, Bangladesh (then called East Pakistan) owned 103 tea estates, covering 26,734 hectares of tea plantation with annual production of 18.36 Million kg with a yield of about 639 kgs per ha.
Home consumption was around 13.64 Million kg until 1955. Then after, home consumption went up rapidly, and Government imposed 3% mandatory extension of tea area per annum in 1961.
Ten years later in 1970, tea area was extended to 42,658 hectares, and production was increased to 31.38 Million kg. During the liberation war in 1971, tea industry suffered colossal damages, which resulted in poor management, high unemployment, insufficient inputs, dilapidated factory machinery, inadequate maintenance, etc. leading to lower yield and poor quality of tea. Besides that, world tea production has been showing an annual increment of 3% while in Bangladesh, the production has increased by 1.84 % and contributes 1.37 in export in the word tea trade and earns near about 1775 million Taka (Taka 69 = USD 1.00) every year.
The study aims to picturize the scenario of Bangladesh tea in the context of world tea, export and import and consumption of tea products in different countries of the world.
