Tea growers are uprooting tea gardens as they are not getting actual market prices for a long time although tea cultivation has been fast-tracked in five districts in Rangpur division.
After selling 6 to 7 rounds each season every year, tea garden owners had to face multiple difficulties among which the low price of green leaves is highly talked about.
No minimum profit is left after deducting all expenditures because of low prices set by strong syndicates without any discussion with tea cultivators.
Tea cultivators have been facing impediments as they had to sell 10–15 tk per kg along with 40%–50% price deduction that results in a financial loss. Again, price fixation has not been possible for a long time in Panchagarh, which resorted to various movements that led to uprooting green tea trees.
Due to proper nursing, the tea garden has been losing fertility day by day. Cultivators demand that if the tea garden owners buy tea leaves at 20–25 tk per kg, they will have less losses.
"There is no rain, and no dew; as a result, it is hard to irrigate," say small tea cultivators.
Because of the continuous drought, the tea gardens burnt and emerged with different types of diseases, including red spider attack.
On the other hand, the price of insecticides has gone up in the market.
In this regard, the Tea Development Officer, Md. Amir Hossain of Panchagarh informed us that the third tea auction center has already started in our area. There is little demand in the market compared to high tea production of green leaves, which leads to a lower price.
The Bangladesh Tea Board Regional Office in Panchagarh informed us that Panchagor, Thakurgaon, Dinajpur, Nilfamari, and Lalmonirhat districts in Rangpur Division have been cultivating tea on plain land in small and large-scale areas covering about 12,10,660 acres.
Sources said, there are 58 authorized tea factories in 5 districts under the Panchagarh Tea Board, out of which 28 are in production.
Tetulia Tea Company Limited and Kazi&Kazi were the first to start commercial tea cultivation in Panchagarh in the year 2000.
Five districts of North Bengal consisting of 9 registered tea gardens, 21 unregistered tea gardens, and 8 thousand 67 small-scale tea gardens (registered in 1745), have cultivated tea on a total of 11 thousand 433.94 acres of flat land.
Later on, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina instructed to bring 500 hectares of land under small-scale tea cultivation in the northern region by 2021.
A record amount of 14.54 million kg of tea was added to the national production in 2021 from plain tea gardens and small tea cultivation in the northern region.
The amount of tea production in the northern region in 2019 and 2021 was 9.60 million kg, 10.31 million kg in 2020, and 14.54 million kg in 2021. On the other hand, the amount of tea production in Chattogram Valley in 2019 was 11.75 million kg, 11.23 million kg in 2020, and 9.52 million kg in 2021.
Commercial tea cultivation in the northern region started 21 years ago. In 21 years, tea production in Panchagarh has surpassed that of Chattogram, which started 161 years ago.
To make a sustainable green tea economy, we have to provide better tea leaves for production, as good-quality tea leaves can make better tea for sale in the auction market. Overall, the cultivators will have a reasonable price by selling tea and for that, we together have to work for the development of the green tea industry.