Bangladesh Tea Industry dates back to 1840 when a pioneer tea garden was established on the slopes of the hills in Chittagong where the Chittagong Club now stands. First commercial tea garden was established in 1857 at Mulnichera in Sylhet. During the partition in 1947, Bangladesh (the then East Pakistan) owned 103 tea estates, covering 26,734 hectares of tea plantation with annual production of 18.36 M.Kg. with an yield of about 639 Kg. per ha. Home consumption was around 13.64 M. Kg. upto 1955. After that home consumption went up rapidly and Government imposed 3% mandatory extension of tea area per year in 1961. Ten years later by 1970, tea area was extended to 42,658 hectares and production was increased to 31.38 M.Kg.

During liberation war in 1971, our tea industry suffered colossal damages which resulted in poor management, high vacancies, insufficient inputs, dilapidated factory machinery, inadequate maintenance etc. leading to lower yield and poor quality of tea. Through strong government support the industry soon got a big a massive development program (BTRP-1980-92) with the financial and technical assistance of the Overseas Development Agency (ODA) & European Economic Committee (EEC) production increased to 65.84 million kg. with per/ha. yield of 1255kg. in 2013.

The tea garden workers were brought in Assam (Sylhet then part of Assam) during the 1850s and 60s from different parts of British India. These workers were treated by the British planters like slaves.. With the passage of time , tea workers got the voting right and with wages increase & other facilities are being given with implement of transportation and other communication system. They can go outside of the plantation and return in the same day.

Old days because of difficult communication, tea estates were like isolated islands, within the country. So were the tea workers from different places of India. Culture and traditions were very different from most Bangladeshi village society.

Now tea workers are different from old tea workers. Except for few remote tea garden, where communication still remains difficult. Tea workers have developed a better relation with local Bangladeshi people. Most of them now speak in local Bangladesh dialect. Tea workers children are very keen to get educated, lot of them have become Doctor, Engineers of repute.

This is undeniable that last 40 years tea in Bangladesh has seen changes but the pace of growth is still slow. In order to achieve better growth & output, workers need to be given more attention to change their attitude towards their responsibilities.

After the liberation of Bangladesh tea consumption has increased many time because of industrialization, country has to import over 1.5 million KG tea to meet the shortage & consumer demand.

Bangladesh Land Limited (BLL) a sister concern of HRC Family Of Companies was established in 1991 with an aim to set up model tea estates that would be engaged in improving the lives of tea estate workers with the basic and essential  facilities for life such as food, housing, health, education and entertainment facilities.

BLL Tea Estates are unique in the standard of tea growing , maintenance and tea making. Gardens are located in the country`s premier tea belt region of Moluvi Bbazar district of greater Sylhet. Bangladesh Land Limited currently operates two tea estate which are Clevedon And Dildarpur. Clevedon acquired in the year 1991 and Dildarpur in the year 1994. Both the estates are contiguous, having a land grant of over 2334 acres.  Clevedon was raised by Mr. Mitchel in the year 1886 and Dildarpur was again raised by an English man in the early part of 19^th century, the company went Bankrupt and the garden was abandoned and was rendered under the custody of Bank for debt. Subsequently Mr. suresh Vhaduri and Mr. Horendra Sen Gupta in 1935 got the garden released from the bank and started tea cultivation. The gardens land mass mostly hills of folded earth, lateritic and partially rocky in places, got created God million years ago, at the time when the Himalaya and Khasia Jainta got created. The tea area being located in the temperate zone and in the tropic of Cancer proximity were receiving rain during the month of March to October. Due to global warming monsoon rain has shrunken on both ends of  the year, now monsoon start in the month of May and close in the month of September. Annual quantum of rain has again got reduce to less than 120” which was earlier over 135” per year. Tea is a rain dependent crop. Hakaluki a inland Lake (Beel Area) spread over 64 square kilometer, is within the visible distance from the commanding hill heights of the gardens. Part of the water area is below sea level. Khasia Jainta Mountain is also visible across the water area of Hakaluki. From the hill top, with Khasia Jainta in the distante horizon, it is an enchanting sight to watch migratory birds settle on Hakaluki in the months of November to February. One gets a felling as if one is on the lap of mother nature.

The gardens have both skilled and unskilled workers. Experienced and skilled workers are enrolled as permanent workers. For workers benefits & rules, Bangladesh Tea garden Owners’ Association (BCS- Bangladesh Cha Songsad)  ensure and implement. i.e. basic rights, good working conditions and fair wages of the labourers.

Each of the tea gardens have factories equipped with modern tea manufacturing facilities. The management practices, the policy of increasing its production facilities at regular intervals to maintain the highest quality. The tea produced is of high quality and sells at a premium price at the Chittagong Tea Auction. Clevedon & Dildarpur together make a total crop of 790000 KG premium tea for the last consecutive 15 years.  Production yield per hector of both the estates are much above the national average. In terms of price Clevedon is within the first 3 garden out of 166 tea garden in the country. Clevedon has been the No.1 (one) tea garden for the past eleven (11) consecutive years.

BLL Tea Estate has an experienced management and uses state of the art tea processing equipment that has substantially increased the overall quality and status of the tea garden. We constantly endeavor to improve the quality of our tea both in bulk and in branded packets to satisfy our Buyers. Dependability is the essence of our business activity. In trying to achieve this, we are continuously making efforts to upgrade our production facilities and standards. That is where the BLL Tea Estates has positioned itself as an exception.

Bangladesh Land Limited Tea Estates are unique in the standard tea growing & tea making. We constantly endeavor to the quality of our tea in bulk and our branded packets to meet the demand of our consumer.

Quick Stats

Total estate land -

Land under tea plantation-

Total Production -

Types of gradation (based on size of the grain) -

STATISTICS OF THE COMPANY AT A GLANCE

Both the Clevedon and Dildarpur Tea Gardens have Malaysian variety of Rubber plantation alongside Tea plants. These two Rubber plantations produce about 84 tons of Raw Rubber Sheet (RSS) per annum.

Temperature, Climate:

 The tea area being located in the temperate zone and in the tropic of Cancer proximity were receiving rain during the month of March to October. But due to global warming monsoon rain has shrunken on both ends of the year, now rain start in the month of April and close in the month of September. Annual quantum of rain has got reduce to less than 120” which was earlier over 135”/140” per year. Tea is a rain dependent crop.

Main Seasons:

• Winter (November to February)
• Summer (March to May)
• Monsoon (June to October)

1. Sea Freight (export & import).
2. FCL operation.
3. Consolidation.
4. Trucking & Haulage of container by road, rail within Bangladesh territory.
5. CFS / Ware housing facility.
6. Quick rate offer, market survey, statistics, reports & information feedback.

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