PRODUCTION -- 23:

INDIA’S TEA PRODUCTION DOWN 7%

P S SUNDAR

                     Drought is taking a toll on India’s tea production with the output trailing behind last year.  If this trend continues, for the first time in recent years, India will report a lower output than the previous year.

While India posted an increase of six per cent in production in January over January 2016, February was a dry month resulting in all producing regions in the country reporting a lower output than in February 2016.

“Tea Board has just released February data which shows that South India produced 11.55 million kg (mkg) – down by 22 per cent over February 2016 – and North India 1.99 mkg – down by 13 per cent.  Collectively, India’s production was down by 21 per cent to total 13.54 mkg”, Rajesh Gupta, compiler of annual Global Tea Digest told me.

This has pulled down the cumulative output so far.   “Our compilation shows that in the two months, India’s output dropped to 32.53 mkg from 35.08 mkg.  This fall of 2.55 mkg marked a decline of seven per cent”, Rajesh Gupta disclosed.

However, helped by higher production in January, North India’s production in the two months increased by 39 per cent to reach 7.85 mkg.

On the contrary, South India suffered 16 per cent loss to dip to 24.68 mkg.  As the output in North India is yet to gain momentum after the winter closures, Tamil Nadu continues to top the country’s production table at 17.66 mkg (down by 11 per cent).  Kerala lost 2.39 mkg to dip to 6.39 mkg.

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