Tea estate owners on Tuesday said that they suffered losses of up to Tk20 crore per day during the recent 18-day protest by workers as significant amounts of tea were wasted for lack of work.
"We get 15% of our annual production in August but as the plants grew too large for a lack of picking amid the protest, their leaves are now useless," said M Shah Alam, chairman of Bangladesh Tea Association (BTA).
"So, we have to wait for quite some time to resume tea production in the gardens," he added.
Nihad Kabir, a member of the BTA, said that a kilogram of processed tea leaves can be made into approximately 400 cups to 500 cups of tea worth about Tk10,000 in total.
"But we get only Tk197 per kg of processed leaves and Tk0.45 from each cup of tea while the rest of the money goes to blenders, packers and other players in the supply chain," she said.
Workers' wages have increased 73.91% and the price of other associated products, such as equipment, has gone up by up to 48% while the auction price of tea leaves has risen by only 0.16%.
Asked whether tea estate owners will give in to their workers' demand for improved living and working conditions as well as other benefits, BTA Chairman Alam said they already provide a lot of facilities.
"We are the first industry in Bangladesh to introduce paid maternity leave and gender equal wages. We will discuss with union leaders what they still need and what we can afford to provide," he added.
With regard to whether the workers would be paid for the strike period, Alam assured that they would get their wages but could not confirm exactly when.
Alam went on to say that they would face a lot of difficulties in adjusting to the wage hike while recovering from massive losses at the same time.
"However, we have to increase our production at any cost or else banks may not be convinced to give us loans in the future."
Tea workers in 241 gardens across the country embarked on a work abstention on August 9, demanding a wage hike from Tk120 per day to Tk300 per day.
On August 27, the prime minister met tea garden owners and set the daily wage at Tk170.
