DHAKA, Aug 11: Tea exports from Bangladesh are likely to fall in coming years as fast growing domestic consumption will more than offset rising production, traders and officials of the country's Tea Board said on Friday.

The country's tea exports fell 27.42 per cent to 9 million kg in the financial year ending in June 2006, compared with 12.4 million kg exported in the previous fiscal year.

The Tea board said exports dropped despite output rising to 58.40 million kg in 2005 from 56 million kg in the previous year. The country planted tea in some 52,000 hectares (130,000 acres) of land in 2005.

Bangladesh exported a record 33.1 million kg in the year ending in June 1992, against an output of 45.1 million kg in 1991. But since then, exports have been falling although yields have been rising.Traders said an anticipated drop in output this year could further hit overseas sales. In the January-June period this year, output fell 26.53 per cent to 12.24 million kg, from 16.66 million kg in the same period of the previous year.

Domestic buyers are the key players at the country's sole auction centre in Chittagong, where the entire produce is distributed by the registered brokers through a weekly sale.

The average price of Bangladesh teas rose 3.87 per cent to 103.25 taka ($1.48) per kg on higher demand at the auction on Tuesday, brokers said.Buyers for Pakistan and Bangladesh participated in the auction, said the National Brokers Limited, the largest tea broking company in the country.

The country was losing some of its tea export markets because local producers were not putting enough efforts to produce export-quality teas, another exporter said.

“Bangladesh must increase production and quality to stay in the export market,” Mohammad Idris, said an official at a leading export firm.

Importers of Bangladeshi tea include Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Poland and Britain. —Reuters