Jan – April tea exports volume down, rupee earnings up

Sri Lanka tea exports in the first four months of this year have declined volume wise but gained in rupee earnings though in dollar terms the performance was lower.

Asia Siyaka Commodities said cumulative tea exports quantity for the period January – April 2022 is at 81.9 million kg compared with 86.2 million kg the year before. The country earned Rs. 88.6 billion compared with Rs. 81.2 billion during the period January – April 2021. 

This converts to an approximate dollar value of $ 367 million which is 12% or $ 50 million lower than last year’s earnings of $ 417 million. The approximate FOB value per kilo is $ 4.48 compared with $ 4.84 a year ago.

In April as per Sri Lanka Customs data analysed by Siyaka Research, tea exports reached 18.2 million kg, a healthy 12% more than last year’s quantity of 16.3 million kg. It must be noted that the 2021 April figure was the lowest in 12 years.

Asia Siyaka said a review of destinations shows Iraq at the top of the list with a figure of 15.3 million kg recording a sharp +66% increase YoY 2021. Russia is a distant second and quantities have declined from 8.2 million kg to 7.3 million kg this year. UAE follows with quantities up a healthily 30% from 5.5 million kg to 7.2 million kg this year. 

Turkey disappoints as quantities crashed from 11 million kg to 4.5 million kg. Iran records an increase of 41% from 3.1 million kg to 4.4 million kg, whilst Azerbaijan has improved 9% to 4.4 million kg. China is another market of concern as quantities continue to slide.

The 2022 April figure was 3.7 million kg compared with 5.2 YoY. We are optimistic that volumes will improve when the COVID situation improves in the country. Libya follows with a figure of 3.4 million kg down from 4.1 million kg the year before. Germany and Chile round-off the top 10 with imports of 2.4 million kg each.

Exports to Japan by end April in 2022 improved to 1.48 million kg compared with 2.06 million kg last year. This is still a 28% shortfall YoY 2021 but the gap is relatively lower than at the end of Q1 when quantities were a low 872,232 kgs shipments in the month of April had improved in comparison, resulting in the narrowing of the gap.