Demand will offset tea yield drop, say planters

The drop in tea production could be offset by demand for quality tea and high prices in the global market, said tea producers. Planters said that they were optimistic that yields would increase with the improvement in weather and production would scale up. Tea yields slumped sharply in March with a drop of 7.1 million kilogrammes year-on-year due to the drought in the plantations. The Low Grown sector recorded the worst drop of of 4.1 million kgs compared to the corresponding month last year.

Planters said that the hot and humid weather in the Low Grown areas during March resulted in a temperature build up in the soil which is not conducive for growth and thereby the month-on-month drop of 21 percent in crop in the Low Grown sector.

Tea yields slumped for the third consecutive month, down almost 22 percent from a year earlier. Yields increased 4.2 percent last year to notch 340.2 million kgs surpassing the previous all-time high of 331.4 million kilogrammes in 2010. During the first quarter this year the harvest was 73.5 million kilogrammes a drop of 8.1 million kilogrammes compared to the harvest during the corresponding period last year.

Low Grown recorded the largest drop of 4.8 mkgs which was followed by a drop of 2.1 mkgs and 1.1 Mkgs from the High and Medium elevations.

Tea production in the High elevation in March this year recorded a drop of 1,842,486 kilograms, Medium Growns - 1, 224,622 kilograms and Low Growns dropped by 4,110,912 kilograms accounting for a total drop of 7,178,020 kilograms compared to the corresponding month of 2013.

Sri Lanka recorded export earning of US$ 1.54 billion up compared to US$ 1.48 billion in 2011. Tea production during the first three months this year was 73,551,600 kilograms which was a drop of 8,118, 636 kilograms compared to the yield of 81,670,236 kilograms recorded in the corresponding period last year.

- LF