Sylhet tea estate owners demand increase in auction price of tea

The owners and workers of 25 tea gardens in Sylhet have demanded the government to raise the auction price of tea to Tk400 from the existing Tk350 per kg.

While tea is sold at high prices in the open market, the garden owners are not getting the fair price of the tea in the auction, they said at a press conference organised by 'Tea Planter', an organisation of tea workers and owners, on Sunday. 
They also said if this continues, many tea estates might go out of business.

Speaking on the occasion tea estate owners identified five issues in the sector and proposed 11 proposals to solve those. 

Mufti Mohammad Hasan, director (operation) of Maxon Brothers' Tea Estate, presented the keynote paper on behalf of the tea workers and owners.

"The cost of production has increased several times due to the increase in the prices of insecticides and other products to control the diseases used in the garden, all the while the auction price of tea has decreased even more. This auction price is not profitable, it is not possible to bear the cost of production in any way," he said.

He added that currently, it costs Tk200-220 to produce per kg tea while the auction price has dropped from Tk170–175 to Tk100-110.

He also demanded steps to stop smuggling of tea, maintaining standard and marketing as per policy, establishment of tea tourism to ensure multiple income sources, and ensuring agriculture loans on easy conditions.
According to data from Bangladesh Tea Board, there are 168 tea gardens in Bangladesh, of which 135 are in Sylhet Division alone.