Tea Industry Sees Higher Crop, Prices May Climb

Aided by sufficient rains, the tea industry is expecting a good crop in the 1997-98 season with output likely to be better than the previous season. However, industry officials said on Tuesday that it is too early to make any estimates.

It is too early to set a target for 1998 but the expectation is to add another 20-25 million kg to the 1997 tea production, an official of the Guwahati-based Tea Association of India said.

Nitin Chandra Barua, secretary general of the association, said the output was expected to be around 800-805 million kg.

"Till November, the total tea output had touched 762.3 million kgs,Barua said.

 

The tea auction centre at Guwahati said plentiful showers in the past few weeks indicated an early start to the season in the region. Tea plucking normally begins in April and continues until December.

The centre said the day temperature had started rising in most of the plantation areas which would benefit the crop.

It said the weather conditions in June and July, when India's southwest monsoon rains set in, would decide the size of the 1998 crop.

According to Subodh Paul, vice president, Contemporary Target Ltd, the weather has been extremely favourable in both north and south. Coonoor-based Paul added that our preliminary expectation is an increase of 25 per cent in production this year in the south.

The tea output from the southern states in 1997 was around 205 million kg, up from 180 million kg in 1996.

There were welcome showers in December and January. This should help the Nilgiri and Anamalai crops to peak until June, said T. Rangaiah, president, Small Tea Growers Association.

Following good showers in Assam, the north Indian tea is expected to come for auctions in March itself against the normal practice of harvest beginning only in April, Paul said.

A senior official of Tea Board said in Calcutta that first estimates for 1998 tea output would be known only in March.

Traders and planters said the prices of Indian tea would remain high during 1998, and could touch an all time high average.

We expect the average price in 1998 to be Rs 75 a kg compared with Rs 60 a kg in 1997, Paul said.

Traders attributed the price rise to the continuing high demand for Indian tea in the export market due to lower crop prospects in Kenya and Indonesia.

Although initial news is that crop would improve in these countries, it is doubtful if they would harvest a crop they lost last year, Paul said.