Tea needs to get proper price to see a turnaround

Bangladesh's tea industry market is approximately Tk2000 crore.

Nearly 1 lakh 5 thousand people are employed in the tea industry, with 1 lakh 2 thousand workers currently working in 158 tea gardens and 3 thousand employed as clerks. Annual tea production exceeds 10 crore kgs.

However, since 2019, the industry has been consistently incurring losses. The covid-19 pandemic, the global business crisis, the decline in people's purchasing power and the increasing price of consumer goods have all been barriers to the tea industry's revival. While product prices in other sectors are increasing, this is not the case in the tea industry. Pricing remains the main and most important issue for tea. Tea is being sold at a lower rate than the production cost per kg. All the tea garden owners are facing losses, and there are significant concerns about whether the tea industry will be able to revive itself in 2025. The government needs to intervene with proper policies to minimize the losses of garden owners.

Tea production is highly reliant on weather. Production increases if there is sufficient rainfall. In 2023, tea production was 10 crore 29 lakh kgs. In the current year, up to October, 7 crore 66 lakh 73 thousand kgs of tea have been produced. The production in 2025 will depend entirely on the weather.

Kamran Tanvirur Rahman, chairman, Bangladesh Tea Association

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