SREEMANGAL, MOULVIBAZAR, June 20: Tea worker Jesmin Akter of Ispahani Company's Neptune Tea Garden has won the National Tea Award in the Best Tea Leaf Picker category, marking the highest recognition in the country for tea leaf plucking on the occasion of National Tea Day.
Jesmin earned the award after plucking a total of 25,621 kilograms of tea leaves in 2025. She is a permanent worker at Neptune Tea Garden in Fatikchhari Upazila of Chattogram.
She received the National Tea Award 2026 from guests at a National Tea Day programme organised by the Bangladesh Tea Board at the Zila Parishad Auditorium in Sreemangal, Moulvibazar, on Saturday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, the event was inaugurated with the release of pigeons and balloons by chief guest Mujibur Rahman Chowdhury, lawmaker from Moulvibazar-4.
The programme was chaired by Md Ataur Rahman Khan, NDC, and Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce.
Among the special guests were Major General Md Mesbah Uddin Ahmed, SPP, NDC, AFWC, PSC, chairman of the Bangladesh Tea Board; Kamran T Rahman, president of the Bangladesh Tea Association; and Shah Moinuddin Hasan, president of the Tea Traders Association of Bangladesh.
Others who addressed the programme included Nripen Pal, Acting General Secretary of the Bangladesh Tea Workers' Union; Md Niaz Ali Chishti, President of the Bangladesh Bought Leaf Tea Factory Owners' Association; and tea workers' leader Sanataki Roy, among others.
