Poor output caused by fertiliser supply constraints and a drought contributed to the sharp rise in the prices of tea, planters said.
The planters said the tea production might face a severe blow this year mainly because of fertiliser scarcity in the gardens.
The government usually provides fertiliser to the garden by March every year. But this year, the government gave directive to allocate only 5000 tonnes against the requirement of 12,000 tonnes in June.
However, the average price of tea in the last auction held Tuesday was Tk 130 each kilogram, around Tk 50 up from the price in the same period of 2007, sources at the leading brokerage houses said.
"The price of tea is very strong now. So far nine auctions have been held this year. And average price was Tk 130 each kilogram," said Sajjad Hayat, managing director of Unity Brokerage, a leading tea brokerage house in the country.
Tea auction takes place in Chittagong each Tuesday and on an average 20,000 sacks each weighing 55 kilograms are put up on auction each week.
Senior planters said they failed to spray fertiliser during March as the government for the first time did not allocate enough fertiliser in favour of the tea gardens and added that the output of tea might fall sharply this year.
Safwan Chowdhury, Chief Executive Officer of M Ahmed Group told the FE that the production declined due to the non-availability of fertiliser in March.
"Traditionally, we spray fertiliser in gardens in March, but this year we failed to do that. This is one of the major reasons behind fall in production," he added.
He also said a drought-like situation in March-April was also liable for production shortfall.
Safwan also said the fertiliser which was allocated by the government in June, would be of no use now as it will be washed away by monsoon rain as soon as sprayed.
Country's 162 tea gardens produce around 58 million kilograms of tea annually and the local consumption is around 48 million kilograms.
