Tea production in India, the world’s largest grower, fell 3 per cent in July after dry weather in the nation’s biggest growing region damaged the crop, the state- owned Tea Board of India said.
Production in July was 127 million kg, compared with 131 million kg a year earlier, the agency said on its Web site. Output in the seven months to July dropped 3.3 per cent to 461 million kg, from 476.6 million kg a year ago.
Dry weather in northeastern states, which grow more than half of the country’s tea crop, might lower output this year by at least 5 per cent, Tea Board Chairman Basudeb Banerjee said in June. The driest monsoon in at least seven years caused a drought in 278 of India’s 626 districts this year, damaging crops, including tea, sugar cane and rice.
Exports in July rose 5 per cent to 19.5 million kg from a year earlier, fetching Rs 274 crore ($56 million), the board said. Shipments fetched an average Rs 140.79 a kg, 14 per cent more than a year earlier.
Shipments in the January-July period totalled 94 million kg, 14 per cent less than the 109.3 million kg a year earlier, the board said.