Tea import rises 28% in July on high consumption

Tea import by India, the world's largest producer after China, has shot up by 28 per cent in July despite high prices, as growing domestic consumption and fears of fall in output triggered the overseas purchase.

The country has imported 2.85 million kg of tea in July, compared with 2.05 million kg a year earlier and the purchase from abroad touched 13.17 million kg between January and July this year from 10.27 million kg in the same period of 2008, a senior Tea Board official said.

An executive with a Kolkata-based tea company said robust domestic consumption and high profit level in the export value-added products have prompted traders to import more despite prices ruling higher than the last year level.

Fears of decline in domestic output following drought in the largest producing state of Assam, too, has triggered rise in import after pushing up domestic prices, he added.

The country has produced 460.88 million kg till July, about 16 million kg less than a year earlier.

The import price of tea went up to Rs 83.93 kg till July 2009 from Rs 73.71 in the same period last year.

However, the average export price of tea rose to Rs 133.80 a kg between January and July from Rs 106.27 in the year before, while the outbound shipment of value-added tea products are fetching even more returns, underlining the trigger behind the rise in tea import by traders.