It is official. The latest data released by Tea Board confirms the speculation in the last few months that Indian tea production was headed for record levels in calendar 2019.

“Tea Board has released the data for December 2019 which shows that India produced 67.04 million kg (mkg) against 55.52 mkg in December 2018, marking a gain of 11.52 mkg or 20.75 per cent,” Rajesh Gupta, compiler of Global Tea Digest , told BusinessLine .

The production would have been higher had it not been for a fall of 8.11 per cent in South India where the output dipped to 18.13 mkg from 19.73 mkg in December 2018 due to chilly winter weather.

“North India produced 13.12 mkg or 36.66 per cent more to reach 48.91 mkg,” Rajesh Gupta said. “Our compilation shows that India’s production in 2019 rose to 1389.70 mkg from 1338.63 mkg in 2018. This increase of 51.07 mkg marked a gain of 3.82 per cent.”

This was the highest ever production for India so far. The increase would have been more had it not been for a fall of 5.83 mkg or 2.59 per cent in the South where the output dropped to 219.04 mkg from 224.87 mkg, essentially because of lower output in earlier months following adverse weather.

Here again, the production would have been more had it not been for Tamil Nadu losing 3.49 mkg to produce 155.37 mkg and Kerala losing 1.77 mkg to produce 59.05 mkg due to bad weather.

North Indian output increased by 56.90 mkg to reach 1170.66 mkg from 1113.76 mkg, Rajesh Gupta disclosed. Assam continued to top the country’s production table at 715.79 mkg, up 23.88 mkg.

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