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Big players edge out minnows in tea trade

Sohel Parvez
Six tea companies have grabbed over 80 percent share of the country’s branded-tea market, driving others almost away from the scene.
Agricultural Marketing Company Ltd (AMCL)-Pran has already planned to pull out, while ACME Agrovet & Beverage suspended production earlier amid high price of tea. The rest such as Union Tea and some others are catering to a very small segment.
ACME however said it would resume production within a month.
These six players -- MM Ispahani Ltd, HRC Product, Abul Khair Consumer Products, Unilever Bangladesh, Tetley ACI and the Consolidated Tea & Lands Co (Bangladesh) Ltd -- are also trying to secure increased market share from the loose tea segment.
Loose tea controlled nearly two-third of the domestic tea market about ten years ago, industry insiders said.
Now branded tea controls around 65 percent of about 48-
million-kilogram domestic tea market, supported by these six majors, which won consumer confidence by continuous marketing efforts and investment to develop marketing chain, experts said.
“Tea is related to taste. What we are trying to improve is quality management system to gain con-sumer confidence," said Shantanu Biswas, general manager of Tea department of Ispahani, which now has around 40 percent share in branded tea segment.
HRC Product, Abul Khair, Unilever Bangladesh, Consolidated Tea and Tetley ACI are competing with each other for thesecond position.
Except Unilever, all these companies entered the market with their brands since 90s, inspired by a steady growth of tea consumption in the local market, which also led to a drop in exports over the years.
According to industry insiders, as more as 14 companies including HRC Product, Duncan Brothers, Consolidated Tea, Tetley ACI, Abul Khair, AMCL-Pran,
Meghna Tea Company, TK Group, Sanowara and ACME introduced their brands to have a market share.
Besides HRC or Abul Khair, most of the companies are yet to make any notable presence in the market, although internal consumption almost doubled to 48.26 million kg in 2007-08 fiscal year from 27.41 million kg in 1996-97, Bangladesh Tea Board data shows.
A number of factors such as better marketing drive, urbanisation, improvement in rural economy, steady population growth and emergence of economically stable middle class contributed to the growth of domestic tea market.
“A gradual development of road infrastructure, which helped companies reach remote areas, also favoured the rise in tea consumption," said Biswas, also Chairman of Tea Traders Association of Bangladesh.
Muslim Uddin, senior export manager of Unilever Bangladesh, said relatively cheaper price also helped spur the growth of domestic tea market.
Although new companies entered the market, a few firms invested in hiring experts to test quality of tea. They also invested less to promote brands and develop market infrastructure, industry experts said.
“It requires know-how and investment in market network to stand up as a strong brand. A number of the tea companies has not focused on these areas,” said KH Murtaza Ali, senior deputy general manager of HRC Product.
Ahsan Khan Chowdhury, deputy managing director of Pran-RFL Group, which was involved in tea business in early 2000, said they want to quit the market.
“We have stopped production a couple of months ago as part of our plan."
Mizanur Rahman Sinha, managing director of ACME Agrovet & Beverage Ltd, said ACME stopped production as tea price shot up too much early this year.
“But we want to resume production soon as tea price is on the downturn,” he said.
sohel@thedailystar.net