India’s June tea crop down 3.8%

MUMBAI (Reuters): India’s tea production in June dropped 3.8% from a year earlier to 142.70 million kg as plucking fell in the second-biggest tea-producing eastern state of West Bengal, the State-run Tea Board said yesterday.

West Bengal’s output in June slumped 14.5% to 40.86 million kg, the Board said. The country’s tea output in the first half of 2018 fell 4.6% from a year ago to 432.46 million kg, it said.

India, the world’s second-biggest tea producer, exports CTC (crush-tear-curl) grade mainly to Egypt, Pakistan and the United Kingdom, and the orthodox variety to Iraq, Iran and Russia.