Bangladesh's Tea Industry: 95 Million Kilos, and the Problem of Its Own Thirst
Bangladesh produced 94.91 million kg of tea in 2025 and targets 104 million kg in 2026, with the Tea Board aiming for 115 million kg by 2030 across 172 Sylhet gardens.
By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 6-minute read
Tea has been grown commercially in this part of the world since the 1850s, and the hills around Sylhet still carry the industry that resulted. Today it employs roughly 300,000 workers across 172 gardens in Sylhet Division alone, and it is the country's second-largest export crop.
It is also an industry with an unusual problem: Bangladesh increasingly drinks what it grows.
Where Production Stands
Bangladesh produced 94.91 million kilograms of tea in 2025, an increase of 1.87 million kg on 2024. The national record remains 102.92 million kg, set in 2023. For 2026 the target is 104 million kg, and the Bangladesh Tea Board has set a longer-range goal of 115 million kg by 2030.
The 2025 figure came despite a difficult season. Irregular rainfall in Sylhet cut output in a number of gardens, offset by stronger performance in the newer growing areas of the north — a reminder that the industry's geographic spread beyond its historic heartland is now doing real work.
The Domestic Market Is the Story
An export crop that struggles to export sounds like a failing industry. In this case it reflects something else: Bangladesh's own consumption has grown so much that it absorbs most of what the gardens produce.
That is what rising incomes and a young, urbanising population of some 170 million look like from inside a commodity market. It is a constraint on export earnings and simultaneously evidence of the domestic demand growth that makes the country attractive to consumer-goods investors.
The strategic implication is straightforward. Bangladesh cannot meaningfully increase tea exports by exporting a larger share of current output — domestic demand has claimed it. Growth has to come from producing more, which is precisely what the 115-million-kg target is built around.
The Pressures on the Gardens
Reaching that target is not simply a matter of planting. The industry faces real constraints, reported consistently in the Bangladeshi business press:
- Electricity supply — Sylhet gardens have struggled with power interruptions, and tea processing is time-critical; leaves that cannot be withered and rolled on schedule lose value.
- Rainfall variability — tea is unusually sensitive to the distribution of rain across the season, not merely its total, which makes climate variability an immediate commercial problem rather than a distant one.
- Ageing bushes — yields decline as plantings age, and replanting removes land from production for years before it returns.
- Labour conditions — wages and living standards in the tea garden workforce have been a recurring subject of national debate, and the industry's long-term labour supply depends on how that is resolved.
Where the Value Could Be
Bangladesh competes in a global tea market dominated by much larger producers, and it will not win on volume. The more promising direction is the one the country has taken with hilsa and is exploring with muslin — identity and provenance rather than tonnage.
Bangladesh already holds Geographical Indication protection across a growing list of products, and single-origin, high-grade and speciality teas from named gardens sell into a global market that pays for distinctiveness. The infrastructure for that shift is largely in place: the gardens, the workforce and the 170-year history are all there.
What tends to be missing is the marketing apparatus that turns a commodity crop into a named origin — and that, unlike rainfall, is something policy can actually build.
Related reading
- Bangladesh and Türkiye Move From Buying Weapons to Building Them Together
- Light Engineering: Bangladesh's $12.5 Billion Export Target
- Saudi Arabia Is Putting Up to $1 Billion Into Bangladesh's Ports
- World Food Prices Hit Their Highest Level Since 2022
Sources
- "Tea output edges up in 2025 despite export headwinds," The Daily Star — thedailystar.net
- "Tea board targets 115 million kg tea production by 2030," Dhaka Tribune — dhakatribune.com
- "Sylhet tea gardens reel from power crisis," The Daily Star — thedailystar.net
- "Record tea production in country's history," The Business Standard — tbsnews.net
