Sri Lanka on track for record tea crop
July 23, 2010 02:23 pm
Sri Lanka, one of the world’s biggest black tea exporters, produced nearly 30 percent more tea in the first half of the year and is on track for a record crop, an official said Friday.
Tea is Sri Lanka’s biggest cash crop and is sold in overseas markets as “Pure Ceylon Tea”. The industry suffered a setback last year due to a drought and fall-out from the global commodities crash of 2008.
But this year tea output for the six months to June rose 27.8 percent compared to the same period last year to 166.9 million kilos (367.18 million pounds), the Sri Lanka Tea Board said.
Favourable weather, better fertilizer use and an absence of labour unrest all helped, said the board’s director general, H.D. Hemaratne.
Strong demand from key buyers in Russia and the Middle East helped Sri Lankan tea exports earn 399 million dollars for the four months to April, compared to 300 million dollars earned in the same period in 2008.
Tea production in June 2010 alone was up 18 percent at 29.5 million kilos (64.9 million pounds) compared to the same month a year earlier, board figures showed.
“If things continue, our total crop is on track to exceed 320 million kilos (704 million pounds) this year,” Hemaratne told AFP.
In 2009, total output fell nine percent to 289.7 million kilos (637.34 million pounds), after hitting a record 318.6 million (700.92 million pounds) in 2008.
Colombo, which stages the world’s largest weekly tea auction, has seen prices rise to an average of 3.37 dollars a kilo due to supply shortages in neighbouring India, brokers said.
India’s tea exports rose by 20 percent in the first five months of the year to 71.2 million kilos but overseas sales may slow due to heavy rains hurting output in the main tea-growing area, Assam, Indian tea industry officials say.
AFP
