India is heading for a lower production of black tea this calendar. “This is despite the Tea Board revising its earlier estimates till July while releasing the data for August”, Rajesh Gupta, compiler of annual ‘Global Tea Digest’, told Business Line .

“As per the data Tea Board has now released, in August, India produced a marginal 0.31 million kg (mkg) more than August 2017 to reach 176.55 mkg from 176.24 mkg”, he said.

This was despite a fall of 8.45 mkg in South India as there was an increase of 8.76 mkg in the North.

Unmindful of the revision now, the overall production in the eight months continued to rule below the same months of 2017 due to lower output in the earlier months.

“Till August, India produced 780.53 mkg against 791.75 mkg in Jan-Aug 2017. This fall of 11.22 mkg marked a marginal decline of 1.42 per cent,” Rajesh Gupta disclosed.

North India produced 637.17 mkg against 634.04 in the eight months of 2017. This marked a gain of 3.13 mkg or a marginal 0.49 per cent.

South Indian production suffered due to excessive rains and floods. In the eight months, production dipped to 143.36 mkg from 157.71 mkg. This fall of 14.35 mkg marked a decline of 9.10 per cent.

So, India is heading for a lower production this year – the first year in recent times when the production will be lower than the previous year, reversing the tradition of posting record output year after year.

As of now, producers expect the country’s production this calendar to total to around 1,310 mkg against 1,322 mkg in 2017.

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