October tea output up 36% on good weather

REUTERS:  Sri Lanka’s tea output jumped 36.2 percent due to good weather in October and a lower base last year, the state-run Tea Board said recently.

Production in the first ten months of the year rose 8.7 percent from the same period last year. “It is mainly because of the good agro climatic conditions during the month,” Sri Lanka Tea Board Director-General S.A. Siriwardena told Reuters. 

Siriwardena said the country could achieve 305-310 million kilos by the end of the year, compared with last year’s 292.4 million kilos. He also said the sharp rise in October output was also due to a lower base in the same month last year. 

Lower use of fertilisers, weak market prices, bad weather 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 percent in its third straight year of declining production. 

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