An unusual development has taken place in the global tea scenario with India, the largest producer of black tea, reporting a fall in output even as the overall world production increased.

“A compilation of the official data received from various producing countries shows that the overall production of black tea so far this year has risen to 172.55 million kg (mkg) from 158.73 mkg in the same period of 2018,” Rajesh Gupta, compiler of the annual ‘Global Tea Digest’, told BusinessLine.

“This increase of 13.82 mkg marked a growth of 8.71 per cent,” he said.

India is the only country that has posted lower production. Here, the major loss of 35.43 per cent has happened in North India where the output has fallen by 2.53 mkg to 4.61 mkg.

Even in South India, the increase is only marginal — just 0.08 per cent as the output has risen by 0.02 mkg to reach 24.04 mkg.

The Tea Board’s ban on production in winter months in North India to rid the market of sub-standard teas is said to be the cause for this lower production.

“Collectively, India’s production so far has fallen to 28.65 mkg from 31.16 mkg, marking a loss of 2.51 mkg or 8.06 per cent,” Gupta said.

Kenya output up

On the other hand, Kenya’s output has risen significantly to reach 79.83 mkg from 68.77 mkg, marking a gain of 11.06 mkg or 16.08 per cent.

Sri Lanka’s production has increased to 48.67 mkg from 45.33 mkg, marking a gain of 3.34 mkg or 7.37 per cent.

“Bangladesh has posted a whopping gain of 62.16 per cent to reach 0.67 mkg from 0.37 mkg,”, Gupta said.

comment COMMENT NOW