|
Tea Industry was pioneered in the 19th century by the British planters. Later, some Indian entrepreneurs purchased tea gardens from their European owners. Indian entrepreneurs also came forward to develop new plantations. Around 1823, tea started to be grown for commercial purposes in the Assam forests, which has ideal soil and climatic conditions for the crop. Assam Tea Company started the first commercial efforts in organised tea growing in 1839. Tea cultivation in Bengal developed concurrently with that in the northeastern part of India during the early nineteenth century. The Assam indigenous tea plant was established in Chandkhani Hills of Sylhet in 1855. At about the same time, wild tea was found along Khashi and Jainta Hills. Tea plantation started in Chittagong in 1840 with few China plants from the Botanical gardens in Calcutta and seeds from Assam as well as those imported from China. The first commercial tea plantation was introduced in
the eastern part of Bengal in 1854 at Malnicherrea in Sylhet. It was extended to Lalchand and Mertinga in 1860. After the Partition of Bengal in 1947, East Pakistan inherited 133 tea estates covering 30,350 ha and their annual production was 18.80 million kg of tea. Tea production rose to 25.17 million kg in 1964, but the rate of growth of production in the province was lower than that in major tea producing countries. Annual domestic consumption rose sharply from 13.15 million kg in 1949 to 22.59 million kg in 1962-63. During this period, export of tea declined because of increased consumption at home, especially in West Pakistan. The war of liberation in 1971 caused severe damage to the tea industry of Bangladesh. Threat to life and the torture of the Pakistani army forced many tea garden workers to
leave tea gardens. The gardens also suffered heavily because of the war. Protected market of West Pakistan was lost. The auction sales in chittagong were suspended. Communication network and transport links were disrupted. The cumulative effect was a fall in output of tea gardens. The new government of Bangladesh appointed a committee in 1972 to make detailed study of the problems faced by the industry. The committee suggested measures to raise productivity and to reduce cost of production and marketing. Requirements identified by the committee included more intensive cultivation, replacement of old and uneconomic tea plants, use of improved seeds and clones, growth of subsidiary crops, modernisation of factories, and grant of financial incentives for establishing co-operative factories for the benefit of small gardens. Attention of the authority was drawn to the high ratio of vacancy caused by unplanned infixing programmes, particularly in old tea gardens, waterlogging due to lack of proper drainage system, vigour of tea bushes, need for introducing shade trees and a pruning system to keep bushes in continuous vegetative phase. In Bangladesh there are three kinds of ownership of tea gardens: foreign owned sterling companies, Bangladeshi Joint Stock Companies and privately owned proprietary tea estates. In early 1990s, a total of 12 sterling companies were in tea business. They owned 26 gardens, all located in maulvi bazar and habiganj districts. Fifty Bangladeshi companies owned and operated 73 gardens, of these the National Tea Company owned 12 and 57 were under proprietorship management. The number of tea gardens increased to 158 by 2000. These gardens covered 48,300 hectares. Of these gardens, 135 are in sylhet division and 23 are in chittagong division. The tea estates in Bangladesh annually produce about 55 million kg of tea. But the productivity is lower than in other tea growing countries largely due to uneconomic size of tea gardens. The country occupies the 9th position in respect of production among the 30 tea producing countries of the world. Half of the produce is consumed at home
and the rest is exported. Bangladesh earns foreign exchange worth about Tk 2,000 million every year from tea export. Bangladesh exports tea (mostly black tea) to the following countries: Afghanistan, Australia, Belgium, China, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, India, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, KSA, Kyrghistan, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, Sudan, Switzerland, Taiwan, UAE, UK and USA. The tea sector contributes about 0.8% of the GDP in Bangladesh. About 0.15 million people are directly employed in the tea industry, which constitutes about 3.3 percent of the country's total employment. Many more people are indirectly employed in other sectors related to tea. Tea producing nations once signed an agreement to regulate production in line with fluctuations in tea consumption in periods of trade slumps between the two world wars. London worked as the main export centre of tea trade. After 1947, the government of India attempted to change the venue from London to Calcutta. British planters organised auction market in London and the Indians organised their auction market in Calcutta. In Pakistan, auction market was set up at Chittagong. Bankers helped tea exporters with advances against shipping documents. Auctioning organisations also offer broker services and other facilities to producers. Brokers advance funds to producers or stand surety to banks for repayment of bank loans. Brokerage houses have rendered tea marketing smooth and economical through tea tasting, cataloging, sampling, evaluating and statistical services. Tea emerged as an important foreign exchange earner of Bangladesh. The country's average export of tea per year is about 26 million kg of value of $36 million. Tea is a labour intensive industry. In the early seventies, some 120,000 permanent workers both men and women with 350,000 dependants were employed. This work group is quite different from workers in other industries of Bangladesh. The present generation of tea garden workers comprises heirs of workforce recruited by the planters from Orissa, Bihar, Madras and the Central Province of India in the middle of the 18th century. These workers have been living in the tea gardens of Sylhet and Chittagong. They live permanently in houses specifically made for them. These people work for long hours for a living. poverty pushed some of them to wood cutting. Employers arrange subsidised food for them through ration from the Food Department of the government. Tea industry of the country faces serious problems and the economic condition of about 80 gardens is critical. In the 1980s, some 40 gardens became sick and their workers became 'surplus'. Sick tea gardens now number at about 48. Some have large overdue loans of bangladesh krishi bank and do not have adequate funds or earnings to repay or service the debt. Average tea production in sick gardens per hectare is 274 kg, compared to the national average of more than 1100 kg. Irregular power supply is also a major cause of production loss.
The Fifth five-year Plan set the production target of
tea at 60,000 tons for 2001-2002 compared to the base year (1996-97) actual
of 54,000 tons. Although private sector plantation and processing schemes
have a crucial role in achieving the target, direct responsibility lies
with institutions and agencies like the Tea Board, Tea Research Institute,
National Tea Company and Cha Sanghsad (Tea Council).
[M Habibullah] |
