DHAKA: Growing domestic demand is forcing Bangladesh, once the world's fifth-largest tea exporter, to import up to 4 million kg of tea in the current financial year to June, traders said on Wednesday.
They said imports over the past seven months already amounted to more than 2 million kg of tea and that they expected to buy a similar quantity during rest of the (July-June) year.
"Imports are likely to rise further in the coming years as domestic demand for this cheap, aromatic drink is growing fast," said Mohammad Idris, an executive of a large tea trading firm.
India and Sri Lanka have been the sources of supply so far.
Most of Bangladesh's more than 150 million people, nearly 40 percent of them living below the poverty line, sip two or more cups of tea everyday, and the number is going up, traders and tea shop owners said.
Each cup of tea with milk and sugar costs 3.0 taka ($0.04).
Bangladesh's tea exports fell to about 3 million kg in the financial year to June 2010, against 6.15 million kg the year before that, commerce ministry officials said.
They said production in 2010 was almost at the level as last year's at around 60 million kg, which was almost entirely absorbed by local traders at weekly sales at the country's lone auction centre in Chittagong.
Bangladesh exported nearly 32 million kg in 1993, and the figures fell to 8.0 million kg in 2008, according to records in the Bangladesh Tea Board (BTB). BTB regulates tea gardens and monitors production, exports and internal distribution.
Pakistan, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Afghanistan and Middle East countries were the main importers of Bangladeshi teas.
"Tea consumption is rising as it is cheap and widely available across the country," said Rafay Nizam, a director of the National Brokers Limited, a leading tea auctioneer.
A total of 56.70 million kg of tea was sold at the auction in 2010, compared with 54.25 million kg in the previous year, Nizam said.
He said the local demand for tea had grown 3.5 percent annually in recent years, while its production rose by only 1.0 percent.
BTB has a plan to increase the yield to 100 million kg by 2021, but it may not be possible due to shortage of suitable planting area, a BTB official said.
Bangladesh has 156 tea gardens covering nearly 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) and 75,000 hectares are under direct tea cultivation.
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