Beginning of a shameful era of Bangladesh tea

tea cultivation without the supports that the former are getting, writes Syed A. Hasib Bangladesh was known as a tea exporter in the world market for long. Even in the eighties, Bangladesh was in the fifth position after Sri Lanka, India, Kenya and China in the export of tea to the world tea market. Tea was occupying the third position among the export earnings for Bangladesh in the seventies, fifth in the eighties but now it is out of the list of export commodities and export earners. This year in the global trade, Bangladesh has listed itself as an importer of tea. It is really very disgraceful for us, as it should not have happened since the century-old tea industry in Bangladesh has ample scopes to increase its production from its vast land for extension, large areas for replanting which are very old and not commercially viable and, above all, has the large number of experienced but unemployed labour force in its existing tea estates. I remember, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, while she was the leader of the Opposition during 1991-95, was on a tour of Sylhet areas and had a night halt in Sree Mangal Tea Research Institute Guest House; the Chief Whip was with her during the tour. She was briefed about the tea industry in Bangladesh, she clearly appreciated its importance and prospects; she assured all concerned of taking positive steps for its development "if she comes to power". But nothing happened for the development of the tea industry during her last tenure as the Prime Minister. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led government also did not attach any priority for its development. Late Saifur Rahman, the former finance minister of the BNP-led government reportedly implemented many development projects in greater Sylhet area but he was very unfriendly to the tea sector because tea workers never voted for him. The traditional tea industry in Bangladesh has spread to greater Sylhet and Chittagong districts. It has about 1,14,563 hectares of state-owned, leased-out land covering 156 tea estates under the British companies, local public and private companies and proprietors. Unfortunately, the industry could utilize only 48% of this huge leased-owe land that is about fifty four thousand hectares of its land for the purpose of growing tea, though the industry is aged over 160 years. The balance, 52% of land, is used for rubber, agriculture, forestry, building and structures, roads and streams etc. The industry has still about eleven thousand five hundred hectares of virgin land which is very suitable for extension of tea. Besides, in about twenty thousand hectares (ha) of land where tea is grown, gardens are over sixty years of age with very poor yield/ha and are not viable economically and need immediate uprooting and re-planting, after soil rehabilitation. At present, Bangladesh produces about 59 million kilograms of tea annually. The average yield is only 1250kg/ha, much is lower compared to that of India, Sri Lanka, Kenya Indonesia etc. In the eighties, Bangladesh used to produce about 44 million kgs of tea annually with an average yield of 800kg/ha. The government took a 12-year tea rehabilitation project with the financial support of the U.K and the then European Economic Community (EEC) which ended in 1992. This project contributed substantially to increasing the production and yield per hectre of Bangladesh tea and improve its quality as well. There is still a lot of scope for its development but the industry has not been getting any effective support either from Bangladesh Tea Board or from the government to undertake any such development project. India, Sri Lanka, Kenya, China, Vietnam and Indonesia -- all these tea producing countries have increased their production and improved quality under different programme/projects during this period. For example, Indonesia used to produce about 46 million kgs of tea in 1988 but it is now producing more than 100 million kgs of tea and exporting to different countries, after meeting its domestic consumption. And Bangladesh has also become now one of the importers of Indonesian tea. The main reason for import of tea by the country is the increase in domestic consumption, caused by population boom, rapid urbanization, change of food habit and improvement in quality of life. Our tea production growth rate has failed to cope with our domestic consumption growth rate. The labour force in the tea industry in Bangladesh includes about 1,18,000 permanent workers, 50% of whom are females. They have more than 3, 00,000 dependents of whom about 12000 youths are unemployed. The government should take immediate development programme for the industry for proper and intensive use of the state-owned, leased-out land, utilise the services of the idle workers and increase production to meet the domestic demand. There should not be any problem of fund for execution of such development programmes because the industry has earned an aggregate profit of over Tk. 9500 million over the last three years due to very high price of tea in the local auction market. The tea industry will not require more than Tk. 3000 million over five years to implement such development programmes which can easily increase tea production to 70 million kgs per year within the next ten years. This will increase the per hectare yield of tea and reduce the cost of cultivation/production substantially. Bangladesh can then regain its glory of a quality tea exporter in the world tea market. In the recent years, small holding tea cultivation has started in northern Bangladesh by the poor farmers on their own land, purely at their own initiative. They produced about 8, 70,000 kgs of tea in 2010, got them processed locally in the private factories and sold the quantity in the Chittagong auction at a remunerative price. The yield per hectare of their tea is very high compared to that of traditional tea estates in Sylhet and Chittagong. The area and production of tea in northern Bangladesh are increasing very fast at a rate of about 40% per year while growth rate in a country's traditional tea industry is only about 1.39%. The economic condition of the farmers in northern Bangladesh has also improved remarkably. If such poor farmers can show so much of success in production of tea without government support and lack of access to bank finance, then why should the traditional tea producers fall behind the former, in spite of having their ample opportunities in respect of accessing bank finance, and research and development (R&D) services, provided by Bangladesh Tea Research Institute with a well-structured management system. Such producers do enjoy all the opportunities of free land from the government and availability of easy finance from the state-owned banks and have the ready supply of skilled or semi-skilled workers and management support facilities. Why should then the industry fail to increase the domestic tea output, now requiring the country to import tea for the rich people with the hard-earned foreign exchange of the poor workers abroad? There can be excuse on the part of the traditional industry to retain such huge areas of free state-owned land in a land-hungry country, and to get easy bank finance from the state-owned banks, if they fail to perform better than the poor farmers who are involved in small-holding tea cultivation without the supports that the former are getting. The writer is a former director, Bangladesh Tea Board and former managing director, National Tea Co. Ltd