Despite the various stages of lockdown in different States, India’s tea production so far this calendar has increased by 18.15 per cent over the same months of 2020.

“India’s production till August, the latest period for which official data is available with Tea Board, rose to 792.49 million kg (mkg) from 670.73 mkg in January-August 2020”, Rajesh Gupta, compiler of Global Tea Digest, told BusinessLine.

This increase of 121.76 mkg marked a gain of 18.15 per cent.

Production increased in all the plantation districts throughout the country, thanks to favourable weather.

“In the North, tea production increased to 631.96 mkg from 534.87 mkg in January-August 2020 – a gain of 97.09 mkg or 18.15 per cent”, Rajesh Gupta disclosed.

Assam continued to top the country’s production table. Its production rose to 379.79 mkg from 309.18 mkg – an increase of 70.61 mkg or 22.84 per cent.

West Bengal’s production increased to 233.37 mkg from 210.84 mkg – a gain of 22.53 mkg or 10.69 per cent. Here, the world-famous Darjeeling tea output rose to 4.74 mkg from 4.45 mkg – an increase of 0.29 mkg or 6.52 per cent.

“In the South, production rose to 160.53 mkg from 135.86 mkg – an increase of 24.67 mkg or 18.16 per cent”, Rajesh Gupta noted.

Here, Tamil Nadu produced 115.46 mkg against 93.35 mkg in Jan- Aug 2020, marking a growth of 22.11 mkg or 23.69 per cent, he observed.

Kerala’s output rose to 41.46 mkg from 39.22 mkg – an increase of 2.24 mkg or 5.71 per cent.

If this trend were to continue in the remaining four months, 2021 will end up with a production almost matching the record output of 1390.08 mkg reached in 2019, producers said. In 2020, the output dropped to 1,257.53 mkg due to lockdown in various states.

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