• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Kohinoor Mandal

`Gains likely by year-end'; Lanka gains most

Kolkata , Oct. 24

The drought in the Kenya earlier this year has brought good fortune to the Sri Lankan tea industry compared to its Indian counterparts. According to the statistics available in the tea industry, during the January-August 2006 period Indian exports grew by 3.5 million kg (mkg) compared with 21.9 mkg growth registered by the Sri Lankan industry.

Marginal rise

Indian tea exports, in this period, increased from 110.6 mkg in 2005 to 114.1 mkg in 2006. Compared with this, Sri Lankan tea exports increased from 188.6 mkg to 210.5 mkg.

Since May this year, tea exports have been registering growths constantly. In January, February and April, tea exports from India recorded negative growths compared with the corresponding month of 2005.

However, it will be difficult to mention whether the Sri Lankan tea exporters have gained at the expense of the Kenyans as the two countries produce two different types of tea. While Sri Lanka is an orthodox tea producer, Kenya manufactures CTC tea.

`Not worrying'

According to Mr Sujit Patra, Joint Secretary of Indian Tea Association, it is not a worrying development and felt that Indian tea exports will gain immensely by the end of the year.

"Both Sri Lanka and Kenya are major tea exporters. Moreover, they hardly have domestic consumption of tea. So, they lay a lot of emphasis on exports," Mr Patra told Business Line.

He, however, admitted that Indian tea's most negative aspect in the global market was its high cost of production, which had made it uncompetitive. "We will record good exports to Pakistan", he added.

Production trend

Another interesting aspect is on the production front. Kenya is not the only country to record a drop in production. Sri Lankan production has dropped too.

During the January-August 2006 period, Kenyan tea production was 181.2 mkg compared with 209.4 mkg in the corresponding period of 2005. Sri Lankan tea production during this period dropped to 210.1 mkg from 215.1 mkg.

On the other hand, Indian tea production increased from 571.1 mkg to 587.2 mkg. Total global production dropped to 1050.3 mkg from 1069.3 mkg.

Tea prices are northward bound all across the globe. In 2006, the average Indian tea price was Rs 65.49 per kg as against Rs 58.23 per kg. Kenyan tea prices increased to Rs 91.74 per kg from Rs 63.83 per kg.

More Stories on : Tea | Exports & Imports | Natural Calamities

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Rainy days forecast for southern peninsula

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line