Home ›› 26 Aug 2022 ›› Front
The ongoing movement by tea garden workers – seeking a daily wage of Tk 300 – caused the industry to lose Tk 20 crore on average per day since a full-scale strike began on August 13, adding up to more than Tk 200 crore till date.
Pointing out that the rising inflation has made it difficult to shoulder day-to-day living costs with only Tk 120 in wages per day, around 125,000 tea plantation workers had begun a two-hour work abstention a day on August 9 demanding a hike in pay.
Tea garden workers throughout the country – except those in the northern region – later launched a full-scale strike, and vowed to continue the movement until their demand is met. This series of events has severely impacted Bangladesh’s tea industry.
Mohammad Shah Alam, president of Bangladesh Tea Association – an organisation of tea garden owners, told The Business Post, “Tea harvesting activities are supposed to take place at full scale in the current season.
“We harvest a significant portion of tea leaves in August, but the workers are still on strike. We could not collect tea leaves from our gardens, and the industry has been incurring around Tk 20 crore in losses per day since the workers’ movement began.”
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The industry contributes one per cent to the GDP, shows data from the Bangladesh Tea Board (BTB) and Bangladesh Tea Association (BTA).
Providing more details about the market size, BTB Chairman Maj Gen Md Ashraful Islam said, “Annual sales is around Tk 2,000 crore at the garden level, and TK 3,500 core at the consumer level after value addition.
Bangladesh’s tea gardens produced 9.65 crore kgs of tea in 2021, and of the figure, Chattogram and Sylhet divisions produced 80 per cent, and the northern region produced the remaining 20 per cent.
According to BTB statistics, the country’s tea gardens produced 1.43 crore kgs of tea in August 2021, compared to 1.13 crore kgs in the same period of 2020.
Bangladesh had set a production target of around 10 crore kgs of tea for 2022, and BTB sources say tea production reached 3.83 crore kgs at the end of July. As the workers are on strike during the peak harvesting season, losses faced by the industry are going up day by day.
On the matter, BTB Chairman Ashraful Islam said, “We have yet to fully ascertain the amount of losses incurred because of the workers’ strike, but the tea garden owners have given an estimate, which says the losses so far could exceed Tk 200 crore.
“The industry will suffer severely if this strike continues, and efforts are underway to resolve this deadlock soon. If the labourers do not return to work immediately, we may have to import tea from other countries, as the quantity we produce is almost equal to the demand.”
Major setback after a breakthrough
Bangladesh’s tea industry had set a record in 2021 by exceeding the production target by 25 per cent to produce 9.65 crore kgs. Tea was sold in the Chattogram auction house between Tk 195 – Tk 200 per kg last week.
BTB Chairman Ashraful Islam said, “Spurred on by the big jump in tea production last year, the local industry – which has been barely covering the domestic demand – started to dream of exporting the commodity.
“The industry is now in chaos, it is necessary to find out if there is a conspiracy behind it.”
Pointing out that the workers, as well as the owners, are suffering due to the strike, he said, “The workers earn overtime if they work for additional hours, but they are now deprived of that opportunity.”
At present, a laborer gets a minimum wage of Tk 120 if he harvests at least 24 kgs of leaves. Apart from this, they get TK 4 – Tk 5 per kg of leaves. A laborer can harvest up to 70-75 kgs of tea leaves daily.
According to the BTB and BTA sources, the major costs in the tea industry are labour wages, processing, and till auctioning. The production cost per kg of tea reaches around Tk 180, after taking such expenses into account.
After processing, tea is sold in auctions in Chattogram and Moulvibazar through 12 designated brokers, a process introduced during the British period.
Tapan Dutta, chief adviser of the Tea Workers Union, said, “I have no idea about the production cost of tea, but the owners are cheating the workers with false information.
“Last year, there was more production of tea than expected, but the owners did not provide additional facilities to the workers.”
