April tea production suffers due to severe drought

Tea production in Sri Lanka for April saw a considerable decline to 26.47 million kilogrammes (M/kg), compared to 31.62 M/kg year-onyear (yoy), data from Ceylon Tea Brokers PLC showed. Production for the first 4 months of 2016 declined to 96.84 M/kg compared to 110.98 M/kg yoy.

That was mainly because of the heavy drought that was prevalent throughout the year,” Ceylon Tea Brokers Director Waruna de Silva told Mirror Business. High grown tea production in April declined by 2.12 M/kg yoy to 6.23 M/kg, while medium grown tea production fell by 1.33 M/ kg yoy to 4.37 M/kg, and low grown tea production fell by 1.70 M/kg yoy to 15.93 M/kg. According to de Silva, production in May has also been on a decline due to heavy showers which have been experienced so far in the month.