Bangladesh's tea production has been on a roller coaster ride this year. Following a sharp decline caused by a tea workers strike in August, favorable weather helped push monthly yields in September and October to record highs. Expansion of acreage and improved methods have also helped lift output.
These results make it likely that the year's harvest will exceed 2021’s 96.5 million kilograms. If production tops 100 million kilograms, it will signal that Bangladesh is self-sufficient in tea, since that amount is consumed domestically. The expansion improves chances that the government’s goal of increasing exports will be achieved.
Bangladesh was close to breaking the record in 2019 and again in 2021. Tea board deputy director Munir Ahmad attributed the large crop in 2019 to both replanting and expansion of acreage under tea.
As for 2022, Anjan Dev Burman, senior manager of National Brokers, one of the country’s biggest tea brokers, recently told the Dhaka Tribune that this will be the first year that production tops 100 million kilograms.
The harvest in November will decide this year's output, but the outlook is cloudy, according to Md. Mahamudul Alam, deputy manager at Halda Valley Tea Company. “Winter fog is already in the garden areas, which is not a good sign for tea as production declines,” he told STiR. On a brighter note, he reported that the estates are free of pests and disease.
Favorable weather during the first half of 2022 led to a 17% gain in tea production. Then in August, thousands of tea workers announced work slowdowns that soon escalated to a national strike. Very little tea went to auction for five or six weeks.
Output rebounded sharply in September, when factories processed 14.7 million kilograms of tea, the highest monthly total in 2022, according to the Bangladesh Tea Board (BTB). October's total was 14.58 million kilograms, lifting the ten-month harvest to almost 80 million kilograms.
The tea board set a production target of 70–80 million kilograms in 2022. The 2021 year-end total was 96.51 million kilos, up 54% from 2010.In recent years, plantations consistently processed 2 to 2.5 million kilograms more tea than predicted.
Alam of Halda Valley Tea Company said that some small tea growers have modernized their operations. Using current technology and methods will improve their productivity and quality, potentially lifting national output in 2023 and beyond.