Good day came back to tea
There was fear even a decade ago. There will be no export. On the contrary, Bangladesh is going to be a big importer of tea. It will lose foreign currency every year.
Entrepreneurs have dispelled this fear within a decade. It is not a big importing country; Giving good news to the opposite export.
Last year the drink produced a record production of this product, which was higher than the demand. This surplus tea is now being exported. In the last five months, 9 lakh 8 thousand kg of tea has been exported. In 2018 or 2019, this amount of tea was not exported for the whole year.
Imports are also declining again. According to the Tea Board, 1 lakh 72 thousand kg of tea was imported in the first five months of this year. As per customs, the import during the same period last year was 4.8 million kg.
Tea imports started in 2009 as production did not meet the demand. The highest import record was in 2015. A total of 93 lakh kg.
Tea boards and various initiatives of entrepreneurs have been behind this good day in tea for over a decade. A decade ago, the Tea Board began implementing an action plan to increase production. Entrepreneurs renovate hundreds of years old gardens. Old-abandoned gardens are brought under tea cultivation. At this time tea cultivation was expanding in the plains. Entrepreneurs are concentrating on tea cultivation as there are good prices in the market. Entrepreneurs in this sector think that this benefit has come because of that.
AQI Chowdhury, managing director of Finnell, one of the leading companies in tea production and export, said tea is no longer import-dependent. Demand is being met with domestic production. The higher the production than the demand, the greater the possibility of export. According to AQI Chowdhury, who has been involved in the tea industry for almost 51 years, this requires continuity in exports as well as production.
The past-present of good times
The good days of tea in Bangladesh are considered in the nineties. According to the 1983 annual bulletin of the London-based International Tea Committee, the country was on the world market in the first year of tea exports in 1972 after independence.