Tea production in India, which dropped by a marginal 4.63 million kg (mkg) till August, posted an increase till September thanks to higher production in both North and South India.
“The Tea Board has now released September data, which shows an increase of 27.48 mkg in North India and a marginal gain of 1.66 mkg in the South over September 2015, resulting in an overall increase of 29.14 mkg to total 184.60 mkg,” Rajesh Gupta, compiler of annual ‘Global Tea Digest’, told BusinessLine .
Favourable rain in many parts helped drive this increase in production.
Consequently, India’s overall production in the first three-quarters of this year was more than its output in the same period in 2015 although South Indian production was lower due to a decline in output in previous months because of prolonged dry conditions.
“Our compilation shows that India’s cumulative tea production in the nine months rose to 901.67 mkg from 877.16 mg in January-September 2015. This increase of 24.51 mkg marked a growth of 2.79 per cent,” Rajesh Gupta noted.
Till September, North India had produced 742.51 mkg — an increase of 43.18 mkg over 2015.
The South Indian production during this period fell by 18.67 mkg to total 159.16 mkg.