India spent all-time high amount of ₹ 455.21 crore to import tea during the fiscal 2020-21 due to large volume of import at high prices reveals our analysis of the latest data now available with the Tea Board.
In 2020-21 fiscal, India imported 27.27 million kg (mkg) of tea against 15.54 mkg in the previous fiscal. This increase of 11.73 mkg marked a whopping rise of 75.48 per cent.
But, the import was made at higher prices mainly because of a general rally in the global market. The average price rose to ₹166.93 a kg from ₹149.14 – a rise of ₹17.79 a kg or 11.93 per cent.
In dollar terms, the prices rose to $2.25 a kg from $2.10, marking an increase of 7.14 per cent.
Since more volume was imported at higher price, the overall import bill rose to ₹455.21 crore from ₹231.76 crore in 2019-20.
This meant an increase of as much as ₹223.45 crore or a whopping 96.41 per cent.
In dollar terms, the import bill increased to $ 61.32 million from $32.66 million. This increase of $28.66 million marked a rise of as much as 87.75 per cent.
Importers contended that majority of these teas was re-exported after value-addition by mixing with Indian teas.
In the post-WTO era, India is unable to stop import despite being a net exporter. The country is importing tea from many sources including some non-producing but trading ones.
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.