Comments
India’s tea export in the first quarter (Q1) of current calendar has taken a beating on all fronts.
An analysis of the latest data available with the Tea Board shows that India’s shipment suffered despite the exporters sacrificing their asking price because of a general fall in demand.
The spread of Covid-19 in many countries since February resulted in less export trade because of restrictions in opening the shops and transportation in the importing countries.
Besides, the nation-wide lockdown imposed in India in mid-March affected the production, packing and transportation of tea for exports.
Since the demand was less, exporters lowered their asking price to average ₹215.34 a kg from ₹222.86 in January-March 2019. This marked a decline of 3.37 per cent.
Nevertheless, the demand was inadequate to push up shipments resulting in the volume of export to fall to 51.65 million kg (mkg) from 63.66 mkg in the first three months of 2019. This meant a fall of 18.87 per cent.
With less volume being shipped at a lower price, the overall export earnings crashed to ₹1,112.25 crore from ₹1,418.86 crore. This meant a significant loss of 21.61 per cent.
The earnings dropped in the export of both North Indian and South Indian teas.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.