The nation-wide lockdown has affected tea production in many States and especially North Indian States have lost heavily.

“Tea Board has now released the data for April which shows that North India lost as much as 46.56 million kg (mkg) to produce 23.91 mkg,” Rajesh Gupta, compiler of ‘Global Tea Digest’, told BusinessLine.

This marked a whopping decline of 66.07 per cent.

“South India managed to produce 1.09 mkg (up 7.77 per cent) more to reach 15.11 mkg,” Rajesh Gupta said.

“Collectively, in April, India lost 45.47 mkg (53.82 per cent) to produce 39.02 mkg,” he said.

This affected the overall production in the country in the four months.

In the first quarter, many plantations in North Indian States were closed for winter and hence the output was low.

“With April also posting a lower production, the overall output in North in the first months of current calendar crashed by 76.96 mkg (57.18 per cent) to dip to 57.64 mkg from 134.60 mkg in Jan-Apr 2019,” Gupta said.

All the tea growing States in the North have reported a lower output.

On the contrary, in the South, all the States have produced more, thanks to better output in earlier months.

“South Indian output has risen by 2.22 mkg (4.15 per cent) to reach 55.72 mkg from 53.50 mkg in January-April 2019,” Rajesh Gupta said.

“Collectively, our compilation shows that India produced 113.36 mkg against 188.10 mkg in Jan-Apr 2019, marking a decline of as much as 74.74 mkg or 39.73 per cent,” he added.

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