Bangladesh Tea Industry

Name: Kawsar Ahmed Sajib

Origin of Tea Industry

• Tea is a popular beverage made from the leaves of evergreen plant.  It is mainly an agro-based export-oriented evergreen crop in Bangladesh. • Robert Bruce discovered the tea plant in upper Assam in

1834, which laid the foundation of tea industry in India.  In 1839, Assam Tea Company was formed at a meeting of some British capitalists and Indian entrepreneurs. Tea cultivation also started in Chittagong in 1840 with few plants imported from China. • The first tea garden of Bangladesh was established in

1854 at Malnichhara in Sylhet. In 1855, an indigenous tea plant was discovered in Chandkhani hillock of Sylhet.

Tea industry in Bangladesh

Most of the 166 tea estates in Bangladesh are located in the North-eastern region of Bangladesh. Owners of tea gardens include both foreign and local companies. All the tea estates are managed by five different categories of management .National Tea company.Sterling Companies.Proprietorship Companies.Bangladeshi Private Limited Company.Bangladesh Tea Board.

• Sterling Companies are foreign companies, mainly originating in the United Kingdom and multinational in nature . (James Finlay, Duncan brothers, Deundi Tea Company and The New Sylhet Tea Estate).• National Tea Company Limited has been formed in the

year 1978 under the Companies Act, 1913. At present there are twelve tea estate under this joint venture public limited company.

District wise tea estate

District No. of Tea Estates

Moulvibazar 90

Habiganj 23

Sylhet

20

Chittagong 22

Brahmanbaria 01

Panchagarh 09

Rangamati 01

Total 166

The estates are categorized into three according to their production capacities. • Category A: All the ‘A’ category estates that have the

highest productivity belong to the British companies (fully or partially).• Category B: The Bangladeshi government, Bangladeshi

tea companies or Bangladeshi individuals own this category of estates.• Category C: The family owned small and low productive

estates belong to this category. Wages and working conditions are at their worst in the tea estates under this category.

Tea Production

Bangladesh is a growing tea producing nation in Asia. Production of tea in Bangladesh registered steady growth rising from 39.81 million kg in 1980 to 63.88 million kg in 2014. In 2000, country occupied 9th position among the 30 tea producing countries of the world, but in 2013 it downgraded to the 12th position. The world production of tea has increased tremendously over the last 50 years. It is interesting to note that the production increases in the major tea producing countries have been due to large increase in the yield per hectare. But Bangladesh yield rate in per hectare is apparently much lower than other countries . In the nineties, the yield per hectare in India was around 1500 kg, in Sri Lanka this was 1600 kg and in Bangladesh it was only 1000 kg.

Production, consumption and export

Year Production( Million kg)

Internal consumption( Million kg)

Export( Million kg)

Export Value( Million Tk)

1990 18.36 14.21 26.95 1565.681991 23.77 19.21 25.40 1392.251992 23.87 21.77 27.15 1263.351993 19.01 14.50 31.92 1686.631994 27.13 24.00 23.65 1166.161995 31.38 22.00 25.43 1291.751996 29.09 20.50 26.13 1349.281997 40.04 22.20 25.17 1775.391998 43.29 25.17 22.23 1808.571999 46.16 32.11 15.18 1008.702000 47.67 38.79 18.10 1205.192001 53.15 36.95 12.92 894.99

2002 53.6241.50 13.65 939.93

2003 58.3037.44 12.18 915.07

2004 56.0043.33 13.11 934.04

2005 60.1443.30 9.01 742.62

2006 53.4140.51 4.79 469.59

2007 58.1946.27 10.56 899.01

2008 58.6652.12 8.39 976.95

2009 59.9953.74 3.15 433.50

2010 60.0457.63 0.91 176.68

2011 59.1358.50 1.47 213.51

2012 62.5261.19 1.50 222.28

2013 66.2664.00 0.54 133.04

2014 63.8867.17 2.66 281.72

Export/Import Tea has been one of the major exportable items of Bangladesh

since 1971.It is a regular export item of Bangladesh. But due to slow growth of production growing consumption and stiff competition from other tea exporting courtiers, tea export of the country has declined. In 2014 Bangladesh exported 2.66 million kg tea according to the BTB statistic. Bangladesh exports tea to the following countries: Afghanistan, Australia, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Russia, UAE, UK and USA.

Though Bangladesh is not a net tea deficit country but it has started import of tea since 2006-07. According to the statistics of BTB Bangladesh imported 12 million kg tea this year.

Marketing system

Tea is sell in two ways. • Direct sell from the Estate. • Auction

A tea estate can sell 15-20% of total production in the local market. Generally tea is sold in the only tea auction market in Chittagong on every Tuesday. The participants involved in the tea marketing system are the tea estates, brokers, bidders, blenders, wholesalers and retailers.

BrokerBrokers are the very respectable participants in the tea marketing system. There are six brokers in Bangladesh. In Chittagong auction market brokers control all types of buying and selling. They receive the tea chests from the estate after fulfilling some formalities. They arrange selling tea of an estate through open bidding at Chittagong auction market. The Brokers Company must need some qualification and must be registered by BTB. BidderActually tea buying and selling starts from bidders. Only the bidders can participate in the auction market for buying. They must have valid license from BTB and other documents to be qualified as a bidder. ManufacturerManufacturers also purchase tea from the auction market by bidding. After purchase of tea they pack it and assign a brand name. The manufacturers have their own distributors and they sell tea to the wholesalers through distributors.

BlenderBlenders purchase open tea from the bidders. The Blenders have their own machine and after purchase they mix the different types of tea that are bought from different estates. WholesalerThe wholesalers purchase tea from Blenders and sell to the retailers. The wholesalers also purchase packet tea from distributors. RetailersRetailers purchase both open tea and packet tea from the wholesalers. They sell tea directly to the consumers according to their demand.

Tea sector overview

Producers

Processing

Trade

Retail

Customers

Bangladesh Tea Board

Bangladesh Tea Board is an organization, controlling over tea and encouraging plantation of tea. The board was constituted in accordance with the Tea Ordinance of 1977. The main theme of that organization is not only increase the production of tea but also improve the lifestyles of tea farmers and labors associated with tea gardens.

Bangladesh Tea Research Institute(BTRI)

Bangladesh Tea Research Institute (BTRI) an autonomous organization under the Bangladesh Tea Board (BTB). BTRI started its journey on 28th February, 1957 at Srimangal as a name of Pakistan Tea Research Station , after liberation war the research station raised as an institute and name the Bangladesh Tea Research Institute (BTRI) in 1973. The mandate of BTRI is conducting research both strategic and fundamental

Employment

The tea estates in Bangladesh employs up to 3 lac workers. Many of these workers are landless and their families have depended on tea estates for their livelihoods. They are often paid low wages, less than USD $1(according to ILO report on tea plantation labor) for an entire day’s work, from sunrise to sunset. Women, who are very active in this sector due to a popular belief that they are more efficient in plucking than men; however they are paid less than men. Tea plantation workers are among of the most vulnerable and socially excluded people in Bangladesh.

Problems • Natural causes.• Oligopolistic control of market.• Instable market price.• Inadequate storage facilities.• Lack of good quality tea. • Lack of transportation facilities.• Labor unrest.• Lack of skilled labor .• Lack of sufficient capital and machineries.• Lack of appropriate plans or programs.• Interruption in the supply of electricity and gas.• Lack of good management.

Recommendation • Infrastructure development. • Use of modern technology.• Develop mixing quality.• Expansion and consolidation of existing market.• Providing financial support.• Appropriate plans and programs. • Government assistance.• Development of quality .

Reference • http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Tea_Industry• http://baltimorepostexaminer.com/as-bangladesh-loses-status-as-major-

tea-exporter-rural-tea-pluckers-have-few-options/2012/12/31• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_production_in_Bangladesh• Bangladesh Tea Board (2005), Monthly Statistical Bulletin.• Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (2004), Statistical Yearbook of Bangladesh.• Khalid, A.B.M. (1975), “Some Problems of the Tea Industry in Post

Liberation Bangladesh”, The Dhaka University Studies, Vol. 23 (Part A), 61-82.

• https://books.google.com.bd/books?id=Ra2jAgAAQBAJ&pg=RA2-PA53&lpg=RA2-PA53&dq=name+of+sterling+tea+industry+in+bangladesh&source=bl&ots=Vw99o0IPCY&sig=zQ9nsLZnoUzIvxBQIWlwxCPr6RE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CFcQ6AEwCWoVChMIva_Ug5DsyAIVZhqmCh2iSgY5#v=onepage&q=name%20of%20sterling%20tea%20industry%20in%20bangladesh&f=false

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