History of Ceylon Tea

Kolkata, Sep 14 (PTI) Tea production in Sri Lanka, which is facing economic crisis, has fallen and India can fill the shortfall. Industry body Tea Association of India (TAI) has said this.

TAI general secretary PK Bhattacharya said that India can make up for the shortfall in production from Sri Lanka and it is indicative of the increase in the prices of traditional varieties of tea from Indian tea growers. The price of Indian tea has increased from Rs 75 per kg to Rs 100 per kg in the auction.

India produces around 11-12 crore kg of traditional tea annually.

According to TAI, by July 2022, the production of traditional tea in Sri Lanka declined by about 19 per cent as compared to 2021. Bhattacharya said that due to the economic crisis in Sri Lanka, traditional tea production has come down and if this continues, then its production in Sri Lanka can fall by about 100 million kg and Indian tea producers can make up for this shortfall.

The association said that Indian tea exports grew by about nine per cent till July 2022 and the total export of tea in this year could be up to 200 million kg.

The United Arab Emirates is the largest consumer of Indian tea after the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, importing 158 million kg of tea between January and June. A year before this, it had imported 67.6 lakh kg.

Iran imported 11.4 million kg during this period, up from 10 million kg in the previous year.