India leads decline in global black tea output

With a massive fall in tea production in India, the global black tea output so far this calendar year has crashed.

“According to our compilation of the official data received from various producing nations, the global black tea output till August has declined to 1,301.84 million kg (mkg) from 1,402.16 mkg in the corresponding period of 2019,” Rajesh Gupta, compiler of Global Tea Digest told BusinessLine .

This fall of 100.32 mkg marked a decline of 7.15 per cent.

India contributed the highest share to this loss. “The Indian output crashed to 669 mkg from 821.42 mkg, marking a whopping decline of 152.42 mkg or 18.56 per cent,” Gupta said.

“Here again, of the 152.42-mkg loss, North India accounted for 150.97 mkg as production nosedived to 533.48 mkg from 684.45 mkg, marking a loss of 22.06 per cent,” he said.

Lockdowns and adverse weather pulled down the production in all the regions in North India.

South India lost 1.45 mkg (1.06 per cent) in production, to dip to 135.52 mkg from 136.97 mkg.

“Sri Lanka lost 31.88 mkg (15.24 per cent) to produce 177.35 mkg from 209.23 mkg during January-August 2019,” Gupta said.

Bangladesh produced 45.31 mkg against 52.56 mkg in Jan-August 2019, marking a loss of 7.25 mkg or 13.79 per cent.

Malawi’s output declined to 33.50 mkg from 37.68 mkg in January-August 2019 — a loss of 4.18 mkg or 11.09 per cent.

Kenya was the only country which reported a higher output. “There, production rose to 376.68 mkg from 281.27 mkg in Jan-August 2019 — a gain of 95.41 mkg or 33.92 per cent,” Gupta noted.

However, this increase was inadequate to offset the loss in India and other countries.

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