DHAKA, Bangladesh – Held in Dhaka’s International Convention City Bashundhara for the second time, Bangladesh Tea Expo attracted large crowds of professionals and general public visitors, who came to look, to taste and to enquire.
Tea production in Bangladesh is important and goes back to the times of British India, where the teas were grown mainly for export to the British market.
After the independence and partition in 1947 the tea territories remained but were divided by the new boarders, with India’s tea regions of Assam and Tripura and the Bangladesh tea regions of the Sylhet and Chittagong Hills.
Since the constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in 1971, production was gradually revived, home consumption increased hugely, with a growing population craving for more teas.
Currently the Bangladeshis drink all the teas that they produce: 83,000 metric tons in 2016, which makes them the world’s 9th largest tea producing country, and they furthermore import another 8,000 tons from neighbor India.
As in most of the Muslim countries, where alcohol is banned, tea is a very important drink as a major vehicle for hospitality and socializing.
The new Chairman of the Bangladesh Tea Board, Major General Shafeenul Islam, has therefore decided to increase PR and communication, with a strong focus on tea producers, tea packers, tea research and tea consumption.
A major employer of rural labor, the issue of workers welfare is highlighted as well as the ongoing movement towards introducing tea cultivation to smallholder farmers for poverty alleviation.
The Tea Expo offered tasting sessions, information about the health benefits of the cup, and also job and employment opportunities in this long standing sector of the food & drink industry.
Inaugurated by the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, all the stakeholders were invited to compete in matters of more innovation, more diversity, improved product and packaging quality, export oriented marketing, new production strategies, research and agro forestry.
The award for the most attractive packaging went to Ispahani Tea Co.and was received by Company Chairman Salman Ispahani,,
the award for premium product for export went to Kazi & Kazi, who sell their unique, fully organic single garden teas under the Teatulia Brand in the USA, and was received by Company Vice Chairman Kazi Nabil Ahmed
the award for successfully pioneering tea cultivation by smallholder farmers in new tea lands in the Tetulia subdistrict of Panchgarh , in the North West, went to Tetulia Tea Company Ltd’s founder and CEO, Mosharraf Hossain.
The awards were handed over by the Prime Minister during an elegant and festive ceremony, with the assistance of MG Islam, who got applause for this brilliant second Bangladesh Tea Expo.
