Tea exports up 41% in January
India’s tea exports have gone up by 41 per cent in January this year following a global crop shortage that fuelled the demand for Indian tea abroad.
Total exports in January stood at 17 million kg as against 12.02 million kg during the same period last year, data released by Tea Board said.
“This is a continuation of the situation prevailing for the last three months when demands from various tea importing countries improved significantly as other tea exporting countries like Kenya and Sri Lanka are facing a huge production deficit,” ITA Joint Ssecretary S Patra told reporters here.
India exports CTC (crush-tear-curl) variety of tea mainly to Egypt, Pakistan and the UK and the premium orthodox variety of tea to Iraq, Iran and Russia. Though India’s total exports in 2009 fell by 5.7 per cent at 191.5 million kg, the trend was reversed in December last year when exorts rose 36.9 per cent to 22.24 million kg for the month. “However, in Northern India, where the climate was not that good, the production was down by 14 per cent at 8.7 million kg, compared to 10.12 million kg last year.”
Good rains
Total tea production in South India was higher by 60.25 per cent at 18.4 million kg as against 11.4 million kg a year ago, a Tea Board official said. Besides, good post-monsoon rains in southern India resulted in 25 per cent rise in India’s total tea production for the month of January at 27.1 million kg as against 21.6 million kg during the same period last year.
Global tea production during 2009 fell to 1.84 billion kg from 1.89 billion kg during 2008, the Tea Board data showed. While India’s total tea production during January-December was down marginally at 978.9 million kg compared to 980.81 million kg a year earlier, production in Kenya and Sri Lanka during the same period fell by more than 9 per cent.
