Clevedon emerges best tea garden at Ctg auction
Our Correspondent | Sunday, 25 May 2014
CHITTAGONG, May 24: The Clevedon Tea Estate, a tea garden of the leading tea business house HRC Group in Moulvibazar, emerged the best garden of the country in the season 2013-14.
The assessment was made based on the prices the tea of the garden saw at the Chittagong auction. The price of the garden's tea averaged Tk 242.15 a kg in the season, the highest of the rates recorded by the top 25 gardens in the country.
Clevedon also saw a sizeable volume of tea sales, which stood at 480,344.6 kilograms.
Unity Brokers Ltd, a leading auctioneer, made the assessment of the top gardens and the teas during the last sale at the Chittagong Tea Auction Centre.
The next other gardens of the top five are Kaiyacherra Dalu at Fatikchari, Chandpore Belgaon at Banskhali, both in Chittagong, Madhupur in Habiganj and the Amtali tea garden in Moulvibazar district.
Mohammed Idris, executive director (Tea) of the HRC Group, said the Clevedon Tea Estate was purchased by the HRC in 1992. It was witnessing a steady downward trend as a tea garden.
Located at Kulaura under Moulvibazar district, the Clevedon has the unbeaten record of achieving the highest number of top prices during individual sales.
Since the takeover by HRC, Clevedon also emerged the top tea garden for 10 years, barring only one year, he said. The total area of land for the garden is 1550 acres.
In 2013 the garden produced 0.48 million kg tea and with an average price of Tk 242.15 per kg it once again was the best tea producing estate in the country.
HRC Group also owns the Dildarpore Tea Estate, another popular tea garden in the country, according to Mr Idris.
The tea of the Kaiyacherra Dalu was one of the finest teas in terms of cup quality, the Unity Brokers said in its survey. The owner of the estate is BRAC that purchased the garden in mid-1990s. In 2013 the garden produced 0.47 million kg tea.
The Chandpore Belgaon garden on 3,000 acres of land produced 0.23 million kg tea. The Madhupur and Amtali gardens were placed in fourth and fifth places in terms of auction price in 2013.