Tea production up in May

Tea production in all three elevations recorded year-on-year growth during May this year which is a strong recovery from the negative trend in April.

The gain for May this year when compared to the corresponding month of the previous year was 5.4 million kilograms (mkgs), an increase of 16%. The Low Grown production exceeded the figure for the corresponding month of last year by 3.1 mkgs while High and Medium elevations were higher by 1.2 mkgs and 1 mkgs. On analysing the January-May, 2014 tea production an overall shortfall of 7.4 mkgs can be seen with 3.1 mkgs coming from the Low Grown sector, followed by 2.4 mkgs form High Grown plantations and 1.9 mkgs from the Medium elevation.

The deficit in crop that reached 13 mkgs from January to April this year has now reduced to 7.4 mkgs due to the better harvest in May.Tea production in the High, Medium and Low elevations in May were 9,497,043 mkgs, 7,112, 896 mkgs and 22,435,098 mkgs compared to 8,283,202 mkgs, 6,074,423 mkgs and 19,296, 437 mkgs in May last year.