PS Sundar

October was a disappointing month for India’s tea production as the country lost 3.71 per cent over October 2017.

Adverse weather conditions in Assam and West Bengal pulled down the production in these major tea producing states.

“Tea Board has now officially released the production data as per which India’s output in October dropped to 176.44 million kg (mkg) from 183.23 mkg in October 2017, marking a decline of 6.79 mkg or 3.71 per cent”, Rajesh Gupta, compiler of annual Global Tea Digest, told Business Line.

North India’s output fell to 150.55 mkg from 162.06, marking a loss of as much as 11.51 mkg or 7.10 per cent.

On the other hand, good rains in South Indian plantations helped the production to rise to 25.89 mkg from 21.17 mkg in October 2017, marking a gain of 4.72 mkg or as much as 22.30 per cent.

However, due to better production in earlier months, the cumulative output in the ten months in North India has risen while due to poor show in earlier months, the cumulative production in the South has fallen.

“Our compilation shows that in the ten months, India produced 1117.62 mkg against 1127.19 mkg in Jan-Oct 2017, marking a marginal loss of 9.57 mkg or 0.85 per cent”, Rajesh Gupta said.

North Indian production rose marginally to 929.98 mkg from 929.85 mkg in Jan-Oct 2017, posting a small gain of 0.13 mkg or just 0.01 per cent.

Assam continued to top the country’s production table at 587.80 mkg (583.32 mkg) followed by West Bengal at 318.24 mkg (322.86 mkg).

South Indian output dropped to 187.64 mkg from 197.34 mkg in Jan-Oct 2017, marking a loss of 9.70 mkg or 4.92 per cent.

“Tamil Nadu lost 4.54 per cent to dip to 134.86 mkg (141.28 mkg) and Kerala 5.96 per cent to total 48.56 mkg (51.67 mkg)”, Rajesh Gupta said.

At this rate, producers fear that the production this calendar would be around 1,312 mkg against 1,322 mkg produced in 2017 – the first time in recent years when production would be lower than the previous year.

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