With November proving to be a better month for tea factories in both the North and South India, it is increasingly clear that India is headed for a new record in tea production in calendar 2019.

“The Tea Board has released the data for November which shows that India produced 139.39 million kg (mkg) against 121.10 mkg in November 2018, marking a gain of 18.29 mkg or 15.10 per cent,” Rajesh Gupta, compiler of Global Tea Digest , told Business Line .

“North India produced 16.13 mkg more to reach 117.64 mkg while South India produced 2.16 mkg more to reach 21.75 mkg,” he said.

“Our compilation shows that India’s production in the 11 months rose to 1322.66 mkg from 1283.11 mkg in Jan-Nov 2018,” Gupta said. This increase of 39.55 mkg marked a gain of 3.08 per cent.

The increase would have been more had it not been for a fall of 4.23 mkg or 2.06 per cent in the South where the output dropped to 200.91 mkg from 205.14 mkg, mainly because of lower output in earlier months following adverse weather. Here again, the production would have been more had it not been for Tamil Nadu losing 2.74 mkg to produce 142.76 mkg and Kerala losing marginally to produce 54.03 mkg from 54.95 mkg in Jan-Nov 2018 due to bad weather.

North Indian output increased by 43.78 mkg to reach 1121.75 mkg from 1077.97 mkg, Gupta said. Assam continued to top the country's production table at 692.14 mkg, up 15.99 mkg.

With the official data remaining for just one month, producers estimate that if this trend were to continue, India’s production in 2019 would be around 1380 mkg, the highest ever for the country.

Related Topics