PRODUCTION -- 26:

AFTER AUGUST..

INDIA HEADING FOR RECORD TEA OUTPUT

P S SUNDAR

Indications are that India is heading for another record production in tea this calendar.

“Tea Board has now announced the August production data showing a six per cent increase in the country’s output over 2016 to total 167.98 mkg.    North Indian output rose by five per cent to reach 148.16 mkg while South Indian output increased by nine per cent to reach 19.82 mkg”, Rajesh Gupta, compiler of annual Global Tea Digest, told me.  

Consequently, the cumulative production in the eight months has increased by 33.45 mkg or five per cent.   “Our compilation shows that the production in the eight months rose to 766.72 mkg from 733.27 mkg”, Gupta noted.

This means that India is continuing the tradition of posting record production year after year.  If this trend continues, the country will end up with a production of 1,300 mkg against 1,267 mkg produced in 2016, opine industry observers.

The bulk of the increase has happened in South India where the production till August rose by 12 per cent to reach 156.39 mkg.  North Indian output increased by three per cent to reach 610.33 mkg.  Good rainfall has been instrumental in pushing up harvest in tea plantations across the country.

Assam continued to top India’s production table and in the eight months, the state produced 382.54 mkg, up by two per cent over Jan-Aug 2016.

Darjeeling had been trailing behind last year with production falling to 2.07 mkg from 5.63 mkg.

In the South, Tamil Nadu topped at 112.38 mkg, marking a 15 per cent growth.   Kerala’s output rose by six per cent to reach 40.61 mkg.

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