BB for assisting local firms to meet domestic tea demand

Consumers’ demand for premium and fine quality tea is increasing in Bangladesh and, to meet the demand, global brands are being imported, according to a review report of the central bank.

At the same time, best quality of tea produced in the country is being exported by the local companies, added the report titled ‘Quarterly Review on Tea’ recently posted in the central bank’s website.

The central bank, however, opined that assistance from the government may support the local companies to meet the domestic demand and help to reduce the import of foreign brands.

“A local study needs to be conducted to assess the demand and size of the local market and identify whether it is feasible to serve this domestic demand by the local companies,” the review report suggested.

According to the report, the production, consumption and export of tea in Bangladesh stood at 90.95 million kg, 79.74 million kg and 0.64 million kg respectively in the past fiscal year (FY19).

The review report also mentioned that Bangladesh is not a net tea-deficit country for meeting internal consumption of tea.

Nevertheless, it started import of tea since last decade, which increased to 14.0 million kg in 2013.

“But this trend was decreased and stood at 3.6 million kg in 2018,” it added. “However, country's domestic demand has rapidly increased due to urbanization, change in consumer taste along with population growth.”