Tea yield in Sylhet feared to face a massive shortfall

Tea production in Sylhet region is apprehended to suffer a massive shortfall this year due to drought-induced foul weather and high prices of fertilisers.

Industry insiders anticipate the fall in tea yield while there's no chance to achieve the year's target as the main season of production has already been over.

The year's tea production target of 102 million kilograms would remain unmet, industry officials said on Wednesday.

In the last year too tea production stood at 102 million kgs against 108 million kgs targeted, officials said.

However, the target had surpassed in 2023, while it would fail this time, industry sources informed, amid repeated prolonged drought, high temperature and rains during the peak season etc, especially in the tea producing areas in greater Sylhet region.

Contacted, director of the project development unit of the Bangladesh Tea Board Dr. AKM Rafiqul Haque told this correspondent that of the country's total 171 tea gardens, 137 are located in the region's Sylhet, Moulvibazar and Habiganj district.

Production suffered badly at the very beginning of the tea producing season in March, April, May and even in June due to drought or poor rains. However, it may reach close to the target at the year end.

The tea officials on occasions stressed improvements in tea quality. Besides, they said some of the industry people were marketing substandard tea along with the quality tea. The common buyers are being deprived of quality tea, they said, adding it should be stopped as the tea board had strengthened its monitoring. Smuggling of substandard Indian tea through various ports borders is another issue. On the other hand, the tea produced in the small holdings of north has no quality, they admitted.

Contacted, GM Shibli, president of the Sylhet branch of Bangladesh Tea Association (tea garden owners association) told this correspondent on Wednesday that tea production was badly hit in the main production season since there had been no rains for about five and a half months. He added still the industry is lagging 10 per cent behind in production. It is not at all possible to recoup losses by the year end, he noted.

Some officials of North Sylhet valley told this correspondent that gardens were still lagging behind the production target. Drought and other causes hit the industry for two years, they said.

On the other hand, alongside others, the 12 gardens of National Tea Company (NTC) could not yet get rid of various troubles, especially labour unrest. Besides, the auction market continues to remain dull, they said.

Some other officials also said the production cost stands at around Tk 200 while tea is sold at albeit Tk 200 plus at the auction. The whole sector is yet to get rid of troubles for second year.

Senior officials said the tea plantations need uniform rains with required sunshine in the main season. They are about 10 percent behind the production target and there is no chance to recoup the losses at the end of the year. The sensitive crop got uneven rainfall and adverse weather behaviour.

Md Shahjahan Akand, senior tea planter and consultant of a tea estate in Moulvibazar, also a former general manager of Bangladesh Tea Board, told this correspondent that the industry has been suffering for two years due to adverse weather including poor rains.

There is no scope to achieve the year's tea production target, he said, adding it happened in last year too. However, the national target of tea production was surpassed in 2023.

A number of leaders of the tea labourers said the women labourers are the main workforce in the sector. The labor unrest over raising wage and other facilities etc in different tea gardens had been an issue, which affected the sector badly.

Tea trader Saidur Rahman in Srimangal said a few weeks were left for the year to end, but there is no scope to achieve the year's tea production target. Besides, quality of tea had also fallen in recent years for various reasons. That is why the tea garden owners did not get proper prices, he said, adding the auction also showed downtrend, while production cost got a rise.

Moreover, some bidders said that they were deprived of fair prices and alleged that the tea auction market witnessed low pricing in recent biddings.

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