Bangladesh's earning from tea export fell by nearly 61 percent to 3 million U.S. dollars in the first eight months of the current fiscal against the strategic target 7. 65 million dollars, The Financial Express reported Sunday.

According to the Tea Board, tea production in the country is falling although the demand for tea in both domestic and foreign markets has been on the rise.

In fiscal 2005-06, the production of tea was 55 million kg, of which only 9.5 million kg were exported. Its production in 2004-05 was 58 million kg.

The Tea Board sources said the country's local demand for tea has been rising at the rate of 5.3 percent on an average a year. It, however, said that as the production could not be raised, the tea export had declined.

Experts, meanwhile, expressed their views that the tea production could easily be doubled by application of modern technology and integrated cultivation system.

The higher tea production for increasing the export earning will not be possible unless the government makes any move in this regard soon, they said.

Experts said tea production is being hampered due to lack of proper care of plants, indiscriminate felling of shed-trees and absence of high yielding varieties of tea plants.

There is a need for establishing public and private level training centers with research facilities to address the problem, they said.

Besides, they said irregular power supply is also a major cause for production shortfall.

Referring to high demand of the Bangladeshi tea in international markets as well as in the domestic markets, analysts said a government initiative is necessary to encourage the private garden owners to boost the tea production in the country.

Some 158 tea gardens of the country covering 48,300 hectares of land are employing about 150,000 people.

Source: Xinhua