Tea production declines 13% in Jan-Mar quarter

Unfavorable weather lead to drop in production from north-south India

India's tea production declined by 13% to 82.29 million kg in the first quarter of the current calender year on account of decline in production in North and South India, latest Tea Board data said.

The country had produced 94.39 million kg of the brew in the January-March quarter of the 2011 calender year.

According to the data, tea output fell by 16% to 47.60 million kg in March this year from 56.73 million kg in the year-ago period.

Tea production has been lagging since the start of the current calender year, the data shows.

The production of the brew fell 11% to 18.69 million kg in January 2012 from 20.93 million kg in the same month last year, while output was down by 4% to 16 million kg in February 2012 from 16.73 million kg in same period in 2011.

According to experts, the production in the first quarter has been down as the first three months are not the main producing months and weather had been unfavourable.

The production of tea in North India fell to 37.52 million kg in January-March this year from 45.55 million kg in the year-ago period due to low output in Assam and West Bengal.

While, tea production in Assam stood at 19.86 million kg in first quarter of 2012 from 27.18 million kg in the same quarter previous year, output in West Bengal fell to 17.53 million kg from 18.20 million kg in the same period.

Likewise, in South India, tea production declined to 44.77 million kg in January-March 2012 from 48.84 million kg in the same period of 2011.