SME Times News Bureau | 10 Dec, 2018
India's January-October tea exports rose 1.17 per
cent to 200.38 million kg as against 198.06 million kg exported in the year-ago
period, shows Tea Board India released on Monday.
In value terms, tea exports during the first 10
months of the current calendar year were at Rs 4,061.81 crore as compared to Rs
3,911.05 crore in the corresponding period last year.
Production, however, fell by around 3.7 per cent to
176.44 million kg in October from 183.23 million kg produced in the year-ago
month.
Estimated production data suggested that the fall in
absolute terms during October was due to a drop in crop production in north
India.
Assam's estimated production for the month decreased
to 96.21 million kg as compared to 104.13 million kg produced in the
corresponding month of 2017, while West Bengal's production for the month stood
at 50.68 million kg, down from 53.96 million kg produced in the same month of
last year.
Taking Assam, West Bengal and others together, the
estimated crop production during October in north India decreased to 150.55
million kg as against 162.06 million kg produced in October 2017.
In south India, including Tamil Nadu, Kerala and
Karnataka, the tea production was at 25.89 million kg in October as against
21.17 million kg produced in the same month last year.
However, on the export front, tea shipments to the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, including Russia, Ukraine,
Kazakhstan and others, were at 51.07 million kg in the January-October period
of 2018, down from 52.72 million kg in the same period of last year.
Exports to the UK at 12.32 million kg remained
stagnant in the period under review, as against 11.98 million kg exported in
the year-ago period while shipments at 7.55 million kg to Germany during the
period were down marginally from 8.66 million kg exported in the corresponding
months of 2017.
However, tea exports to Iran went up marginally to
23.04 million kg in the period under review, from 22.13 million kg in the
year-ago period.
As much as 9.63 million kg of tea was shipped out to
Egypt during the first 10 months of the current year, up from 8.54 million kg
in the year-ago period.
Tea exports to neighbouring Pakistan stood at 13.07
million kg in the period, up by over 22 per cent from 10.65 million kg exported
in the corresponding months of 2017.
India's tea exports to China at 7.76 million kg
during the period were up from 6.5 million kg in the year-ago period.