National Tea making profit again

National Tea Company made profits in the first six months of the fiscal 2020-21 after a loss in the April-June quarter of FY2019-20.

An official of the National Tea Company told The Business Standard that its sales have also increased in the second half of the year as the quality of tea improved.

According to the company's financial accounts, the company's tea sales fell below Tk9 crore in the April-June quarter of 2020 due to the lockdown, and its losses exceeded Tk13 crore in just three months due to various other problems.

Overcoming the situation, the company sold tea worth Tk36.27 crore in the July-September quarter and made a profit of Tk1.40 crore.

Besides, the company has sold tea worth Tk35.1 crore in the October-December quarter. The company had sold tea worth Tk28.01 crore in the same quarter last year.

The company made a loss of Tk83 lakh in the October-December quarter of 2019, but made a profit of Tk20 lakh in the same quarter last year.

AK Azad Chowdhury, Company Secretary, National Tea Company Limited, told TBS that the demand for our tea has increased in the market due to the increase in quality. We got quite a good price at the auction which has played a role in our profits.

National Tea works on planting, manufacturing and selling tea and rubber trees. The average annual production of the company is about 5.20 million kg.

The company sells most of the tea it produces through the Chittagong Auction Market. And in 2000 they started local marketing of tea on a small scale.

Founded in 1978, the company employs about 12,500 workers in 12 tea estates.

Those involved in the trade of the tea industry said that as a result of the change in the eating habits of Bangladeshis, people of all classes and professions now drink tea. At the moment the trade in this sector is about twenty thousand crore rupees.