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Adulterators take undue advantage of tea price hike
Our Correspondent
3/1/2005
CHITTAGONG, Feb 28: A section of profit-mongering traders are mixing low graded tea dusts with the pure tea of the general category as the tea price increased by Tk 20 per kg during the last one week in Chittagong tea market.
With the price hike of tea, owners of tea-stalls in the port city also raised their prices by Tk 1.00 per cup.
According to the tea industry sources, due to negligence of the government and tea garden owners, a back-dated tea cultivation system is still being applied in the country.
The volume of tea cultivation in neighbouring India and Sri Lanka is four times higher than that of our country as they apply a modern system of tea cultivation, the sources informed.
So the country is being deprived of a huge amount of foreign currency, the sources added.
The demand of tea in the internal market is increasing at the rate of 3.0 per cent annually.
However, inclement weather hampered production of tea seriously this year. As a result, the price of tea witnessed the upward trend, they opined.
Moreover, the tremendous rush of international buyers for procuring tea in the recently held tea auction also worked behind the present price spiral of tea.
Tea exporters observed, if the age-old system of tea production is changed into a modern and improved one, its volume of production will increase many times.
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