India heading for higher tea production this year

India’s tea production up 12 per cent in the first quarter of 2019 and the country is heading for higher tea production in calendar year 2019, going by the trend in the first quarter.

India’s tea exports increased by 11.5 per cent to 17.93 million kgs in April this year against 16.08 million kgs in the year-ago month, according to the Tea Board India data.

In value terms, it increased nearly 30 per cent to Rs 401.32 crore against Rs 308.76 crore in April 2018. According to the provisional data, price realisation per kg of tea at Rs 223.83 was 16.57 per cent higher than Rs 192.01 a kg fetched in the year-ago month.

During the month, tea exports to Pakistan stood at 0.85 million kgs, up marginally from 0.83 million kgs exported in the corresponding month of 2018. In case of China, it was down at 0.64 million kgs in April against 0.73 million kgs in the same month last year.

Tea shipments to CIS countries, including Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, were at 3.7 million kgs in April, down from 4.25 million kgs in the same period of last year.

At 0.42 million kgs, exports to the UK were marginally up against 0.41 million kgs shipped in April 2018. At 0.46 million kgs, exports to Germany were down from 0.65 million kgs shipped in April 2018.

Exports to Iran, however, went up sharply to 4.92 million kgs in the period from 1.68 million kgs in the year-ago month. For the first time in 2018, India produced a lower volume than in the previous year. And, until February 2019, the falling trend continued.

Now, this falling trend has been reversed thanks to both North and South India reporting higher production in March. “The Tea Board has now released the official data for March, showing India’s tea production rising to 74.59 million kg (mkg) from 61.04 mkg in March 2018, an increase of 13.55 mkg or 22.20 per cent,” Rajesh Gupta, compiler of the annual Global Tea Digest, told BusinessLine. Consequently, the production in Q1 has also increased year-on-year.

“From January to March, the cumulative production of tea in the country rose to 103.61 mkg from 92.20 mkg, marking a gain of 11.41 mkg or 12.38 per cent,” said Gupta. North Indian teas, dormant from December 2018 due to the Tea Board’s order to close operations in winter to get rid of sub-standard teas, have now begun to hit the market. Production from the North in Q1 rose to 64.13 mkg from 53.86 mkg in the same quarter last year, posting a gain of 10.27 mkg or 19.07 per cent.

Assam topped the production table with 33.35 mkg (up by 9.44 mkg) followed by West Bengal with 29.14 mkg (up 0.22 mkg). South Indian production in Q1 rose to 39.48 mkg from 38.34 in Q1 of 2018, a marginal gain of 1.14 mkg or 3 per cent, because of favourable weather in Tamil Nadu. The State’s production rose to 27.08 mkg from 25.79 mkg, while Kerala’s production dropped to 11.55 mkg (from 11.61 mkg).

Meanwhile India’s tea production in April fell 4 per cent from a year earlier to 84.42 million kg due to lower plucking in the top producing north-eastern state of Assam, the state-run Tea Board said on Monday.

In the first four months of 2019, India produced 188.03 million kg of tea, up 4.3 per cent from a year ago because of higher production in March, the board said in a statement.

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

The country’s tea exports in January to April nudged up 0.4 per cent to 81.59 million kg, it said.

Tea producers in North India are a worried lot. Higher production of the crop in February, March and April has sent prices down. While average prices of CTC in Sale 22, which concluded last week, was down by around 2 per cent over last year; that of dust was down by about 11 per cent.

While the average prices of CTC in Sale 22 was _143.83 a kg, as compared to _146.14 a kg last year; that of dust was _146.26 a kg against _164.53 a kg.

As per data available on the Tea Board of India website, production of tea by both big growers and small tea growers in North India in February 2019 was close to 4.64 million kg (mkg), nearly 150 per cent higher than the 1.85 mkg recorded in 2018. Production of tea in March 2019 was around 59.49 mkg (46.72 mkg), while that in April 2019 was close to 70.37 mkg (65.46 mkg).

According to Sujit Patra, Secretary, Indian Tea Association, the industry harvested a bumper crop in February, March and April. This had an impact on prices. However, the kind of price decline that has been witnessed is rather “unexpected”.

In fact, the industry had expected the first flush crop, which usually comes in by April, to open on a firm note following the Tea Board directive of curtailment in production beyond December 10.

Agencies