Although the Centre revised its earlier order and permitted the tea industry, including plantations, to work with 50 per cent of the workers, subject to conforming to the requirements for Covid-19 care, the tea trade in Coonoor and Coimbatore is waiting for the lockdown period to end.

In the Nilgiris, some estates and factories are functioning following the permission granted by the district collector. Sources told Business Line that they are just piling up the stocks as they have orders on hand.

“We will send the new teas only when transportation becomes normal,” an executive of a tea factory said.

However, those dependent on auctions for trading their teas are not keen on producing tea during this lockdown period.

The Coonoor Tea Trade Association has decided that the offices of the CTTA and the warehouses will remain closed till April 14. Also, it will hold the sale (Sale 13) only on April 18.

Tea production data

Meanwhile, Tea Board has released the country’s production data for February.

“India produced 14.53 million kg (mkg) against 14.80 mkg in February 2019, marking a fall of 1.82 per cent”, Rajesh Gupta, compiler of annual Global Tea Digest, said.

North India, which did not have any production in January, posted an output of 1.24 mkg against 4.64 mkg in January 2019, marking a massive decline of 73.28 per cent.

On the contrary, thanks to better weather conditions, South Indian output rose to 13.29 mkg from 10.16 mkg in February 2019, marking a gain of 30.81 per cent.

“Our compilation shows that in the first two months, India’s production rose to 30.54 mkg from 29.02 mkg in Jan-Feb 2019. This increase of 1.52 mkg marks a gain of 5.24 per cent”, Rajesh Gupta noted.

The cumulative output in the two months in South India rose to 29.30 mkg from 24.38 mkg, marking an increase of 20.18 per cent, he said.

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