June tea output falls 6.7% on bad weather

Tuesday, 4 August 2015 01:07 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: Sri Lanka’s tea output fell 6.7% in June compared with the same month a year earlier, due to bad weather, the state-run Tea Board said on Monday.

Production in the first six months was down 0.59%.

“There is a slight drop due to agro-climatic reasons,” said Anura Siriwardena, director general at the Sri Lanka Tea Board. 07-2

The island nation’s annual tea output fell 0.6% in 2014 from a year earlier, missing the annual forecast. It rose 4.2% in 2013 to a record 340.2 million kg, surpassing its 2010 peak of 331.4 million kg. However, earnings hit a record $1.63 billion in 2014, up from $1.54 billion

in 2013.

Tea, Sri Lanka’s top agricultural export commodity, is one of the main foreign currency earners for the $78.6 billion economy.