Tea crop up 6.14% in August

Thursday, 21 September 2017 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: Tea output rose 6.14% due to good weather in August, the state-run Tea Board said on Wednesday, while industry officials also attributed the gain to lower production last year.

Production in the first eight months of the year edged up 3.99% compared to the same period last year.

“It’s the good weather that helped to increase the production, this year we will have a better production than last year,” Sri Lanka Tea Board Director-General S.A. Siriwardena told Reuters.

“We will be able to achieve 305-310 million kilos by the end of this year.”

Anil Cooke, head of Asia Siyaka Commodities said the low base also helped.

Lower use of fertilisers, weak market prices and a government ban on the use of pesticides resulted in a decline in production last year.

Sri Lanka’s tea output hit a seven-year low in 2016, falling 11.1% in its third straight year of declining production due to adverse weather.

Tea export volume dropped to a 14-year low in 2016, broker data showed. Export earnings fell 5.3% to $ 1.26 billion in 2016 from $ 1.33 billion in 2015. Sri Lanka recorded its highest earnings of $ 1.63 billion in 2014.