Tea gardens on the northern plains of Bangladesh produced a record 20,242,052 kilograms in the 2025 season, about a fifth of the national crop, the Bangladesh Tea Board's regional office reported.

The five northern districts, Panchagarh, Thakurgaon, Dinajpur, Nilphamari and Lalmonirhat, made about 5.8 million kilograms more tea than a year earlier, Prothom Alo and the state agency BSS reported, citing Tea Board figures. National output for the season was 94.91 million kilograms, which puts the northern share near 21%.

What sets the region apart is who grows the leaf. The crop comes off 11,600 acres worked by 30 estates and 8,371 smallholdings, of which 2,225 are registered gardens under 25 acres and 6,146 are unregistered plots, the reports said. Unlike the hill gardens of Sylhet and Chattogram that have long defined Bangladeshi tea, the northern crop grows on flat land, and most of its holdings are small plots rather than plantations.

The north first took second place in national production in 2021, at 14.5 million kilograms, and has held it since, with annual output between 14.3 million and 17.9 million kilograms in the years between. The 2025 figure is the highest the region has recorded, and Tea Board officials said they expect the current season to yield about 25 million kilograms.

The arithmetic points one way. A tea map that once meant the hills of Sylhet now runs north to the plains, where most of the leaf comes not from estates but from thousands of small growers.

Sources: Prothom Alo, "Tea production rises in the north as cultivation expands" (March 7, 2026) | en; BSS, "Farmers set record in tea production on plain land in northern region" (March 7, 2026) | en.