Tea production down 9.5% in May, exports up 4%

India's estimated tea production fell by around 9.5 per cent to 111.82 million kg in May from 123.51 million kg produced in the year-ago month, data from the Tea Board India showed on Thursday.

According to the provisional data, tea export during January-May period was up by about 4 per cent to 94 million kg as against 90.43 million kg exported in the year-ago period and in value terms, export during the months under review was at Rs 1,811.51 crore as compared to Rs 1,761.35 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Estimated production data suggested the fall in absolute term during May was due to drop in the crop production both in north and south India.

In north India, Assam's estimated production for the month was down to 53.60 million kg as compared to 62.53 million kg in the corresponding month of 2017, while West Bengal's production stood at 33.90 million kg, up marginally from 33.17 million kg in the same month of last year.

Taking Assam, West Bengal and others together, the estimated crop during the month under review in north India decreased by nearly 9 per cent to 89.80 million kg as against 98.33 million kg produced in May 2017.

In south India, including Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, the tea production was at 22.02 million kg in May as against 25.18 million kg earlier.

However, on the exports front, tea shipments to Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, including Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, were at 23.89 million kg in the January-May period of 2018, down from 26.69 million kg in the same period of last year.

Exports to the UK also fell to 3.75 million kg in the period under review, as against 4.17 million kg in the year-ago period while exports at 3.49 million kg to Germany during the period were also down from 3.75 million kg in the corresponding months of 2017.

However, tea exports to Iran went up to 10.36 million kg in the period under review, up by over 13.5 per cent from 9.12 million kg in the year-ago period.

As much as 5.76 million kg of tea was shipped out to Egypt during the first five months of current year, up from 3.48 million kg in the year-ago period.

Tea exports to Pakistan stood at 5.82 million kg in the period, as against 3.79 million kg exported in the corresponding months of 2017.

India's tea exports to China during the period were up at 3.66 million kg.

--IANS

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