The tea industry of Bangladesh is facing an unprecedented crisis due to climate change.

Bangladesh Tea Research Institute (BTRI) alongside universities need to conduct advanced scientific research to come up with tea plant varieties that can adapt to climate change while providing quality and high yields, suggested speakers at a seminar yesterday.

Even with record high production, growers feel gloomy as both prices and sales are downwards

Bumper yields have made tea production in Bangladesh reach a historic high in 2023, according to industry people

It was in 2007 when one of the country’s largest tea-producing companies, Consolidated Tea and Lands Company (Bangladesh) Limited, initiated a long-term plan to increase tea production. 

The jump in consumption of tea, once a preserve of the elite, brought about by the rise in people’s purchasing power over the past decade has presented tea garden owners with a renewed and compelling business case.

Tea farmers in Bangladesh are concerned about seeing lower yields this year as much of their trees have been afflicted by various diseases and pests amid the ongoing heatwave and insufficient rain.

Tea production in Bangladesh decreased by nearly 3 per cent year-on-year in 2022.