Tea in short supply

Due to closure of almost all tea gardens for 15 days, supply of tea at auction houses in Chattagram has decreased, affecting its price.

From August 13 to August 29, workers at nearly 80 per cent of the country’s gardens in Sylhet and Chattogram divisions refrained from plucking tea leaves, observing strike for higher wages.

The supply of tea at this week’s auction was at least 40 percent lower than earlier. At the same time, the price has increased by TK10-15 per kg.

Major General Ashraful Islam, Chairman of Bangladesh Tea Board said, the market price of tea is generally based on supply and demand and this is an international norm and almost all tea producing countries follow the practice.

“Although we are trying to assess the impact of the recent labor strike on the industry, we will not intervene in the tea market,” he added.

The quantity of ‘Plain Tea’ at auction house in Chattogram where most tea products in the country are put up for auction came down significantly from 65,000 bags to 40,000 bags on Monday.

At least four types of tea were sold at the auction, among which the Plane Tea’, which is commonly used in the country, was sold at Tk210 per kg with an increase of Tk15 compared to the previous week. In the previous week, its price was Tk195-Tk200.

Tasbir Hakim, Manager (tea) of Ispahani Tea Limited, the country’s top tea producer and marketing company, said the price increase is a normal trend due to reduced supply.

The impact of the ongoing crisis in the tea sector will be evident in the next few days, he said.

‍However, the overall economic condition of the country has reduced the demand for tea, as people have reduced their consumption of tea due to overall inflationary pressure.

At the same time, the demand for tea has decreased slightly due to warm weather.

According to the tea board sources, the tea industry had suffered a loss of about TK200 crore due to the work abstention.

As many as 167 tea gardens in Bangladesh produced around 95 million kg of tea in 2021.