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| Sunday, 8 May 2005 |
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Lanka's March tea crop equals Kenya's harvest of 24.8m kgs by Elmo Leonard Sri Lanka's tea crop for March reached 24.8 million kilograms, the same as Kenya's harvest for the month, but the African nation who is the island's arch rival for first place for a single nation's exports of tea, has todate a crop of 84.8 million kilos, while Sri Lanka lags behind with 72.6 million kilos to the present day. For 2004, Sri Lanka's exports of tea of 300 million kilos was the highest in her history, beating her world record for tea exports of 298 million kilos set in 2003. But Kenya, who played second fiddle to Sri Lanka in export performance for 20 years, except in 1995 and 1996, went way ahead reaching the dizzy height of 333 million kilos at the end of 2004. Sri Lanka has experienced very wet weather thus far during this year, and if such damp weather patterns continue, she could better her tea yield for 2005 over 2004. But now, beating Kenya in performance of exports of tea by volume may be beyond Sri Lanka's reach unless Kenya experiences drought, as had been the norm during the last decade. Kenya, a new entrant to the tea export arena compared to Sri Lanka who has been in the trade for nearly 140 years has by and large cloned tea bushes. Sri Lanka's tea bushes are largely very old, often over a century. Sri Lanka's total sale average of Rs 193.37 per kilo for the first four months of 2005 shows an average growth of Rs 27.83 per kilo for the corresponding months of 2004. The low grown average of Rs 203.76 shows a gain of Rs 35.39 average over that of the first four months of last year, according to brokers, Forbes and Walker. The medium grown average of Rs 171.53 per kilo is Rs 25.50 on average per kilogram, this year, over that of 2004, for the first four months of the year. The high grown average of Rs 181.99 per kilo for the four months of 2005 in review is a growth of Rs 11.19 per kilo, average over that of the corresponding four months of 2004. Exports of 73.1 million kilos during the first quarter of 2005 shows a decline of 3.9 million kilograms, compared with 77 million kilos exported during the same quarter of 2005. Exports of tea in bulk form for 2005 in review reflects a decline while,
exports of tea in packets and bags have recorded increases over the
performance of 2004. Export earnings of Rs 19.8 billion (Rs 100 to a US
dollar) during the first quarter shows a growth of Rs 1.8 billion over that
of last year, for the same period. The average FOB value of Rs 271.80 for
the period reflects a growth of Rs 37.61, compared to Rs 234.19 per kilogram
average for the first quarter of 2004. |
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