Bangladeshi tea suffers poor image

26 January 1999

Bangladeshi tea suffers poor image

CRUSH, tear and curl teas from Bangladesh are all suffering in the marketplace from a poor image which translates to a heavily discounted selling price, reports the Financial Times.

The paper says the country has improved its quality, but this message has not reached the buyers and needs marketing.

Bangladesh also suffers from a number of technical handicaps. It is reliant on ageing bushes which yield far less than clonal plantation. It also has a lack of modern cultivation and manufacturing know-how.

One initiative being taken by the Bangladesh Tea Association is a search for soft loans to carry out replanting with high-yielding clonal varieties. Again, there is a problem here in that large-scale replantation is difficult because of the lack of quality planting materials.

• Financial Times 26/01/99 page 30