Indications are that India is heading for a record tea production in the current calendar despite a lower output in South, thanks to a higher output in the North.

“Tea Board has now released the data for August which shows a decline in production in the North due to adverse weather conditions but South managed to produce more. North India lost 20.65 million kg (mkg) to produce 157.12 mkg while South gained 2.47 mkg to produce 14.77 mkg”, Rajesh Gupta, compiler of Global Tea Digest , told Business Line .

“Collectively, India’s production in August dropped by 18.18 mkg to dip to 171.89 mkg”, he said.

However, helped by better production in the North earlier months, the country’s overall production in the eight months of the current calendar has increased over the same period of 2018.

“Our compilation shows that India’s production in the eight months rose to 821.64 mkg from 804.41 mkg in January-August 2018”, Rajesh Gupta said. This increase of 17.23 mkg marked a gain of 2.14 per cent.

The increase would have been more had it not been for a fall of 2.05 mkg or 1.47 per cent in the South where the output dropped to 137.02 mkg from 139.07 mkg.

Here again, the production would have been more had it not been for Tamil Nadu losing 3.66 mkg to produce 96.28 mkg due to bad weather. Kerala gained 1.83 mkg to produce 37.87 mkg.

North Indian output increased by 19.28 mkg to reach 684.62 mkg from 665.34 mkg, Rajesh Gupta disclosed.

Assam continued to top the country’s production table but its output dropped by 2.14 mkg to dip to 414.43 mkg due to floods.

If this trend were to continue in the remaining months, producers estimate that the country’s production this calendar would be around 1328 mkg – the highest ever for the country.

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