Tea exports down 8.92% in July

India's tea export in July this year has declined by 8.92 per cent to 14.61 million kgs from 16.04 million kgs in the same month of previous year, Tea Board officials today said.

The officials said that the value of tea export during the month stood at Rs 133.37 crore, down by 18.19 per cent over Rs 163.02 crore in July, 2003.

Despite the decline in July, the total exports during the first seven months of the year has registered an increase of 23.08 per cent to 93.64 million kgs from 76.08 m kgs in the corresponding period last year, the board officials said.

They said that despite substantial jump in quantity, the value of tea exports during the first seven months remained flat and showed a growth of only 0.83 per cent at Rs 771.13 crore as against Rs 764.75 crore last year.

On production front, the Board officials said that it was down by 1.75 per cent in July to 104.01 million kgs from 105.86 million kgs in the same month of 2003.

However, total tea production in the country during the first seven months of 2004 had registered a substantial decline of 8.45 per cent to 384.46 m kgs from 419.94 m kgs between January and July, 2003.

Giving the countrywise breakup of exports till June, the officials said that there was substantially increase in export to Iraq, UAE, Poland, Pakistan and UK even though export to CIS was down by 5.76 per cent to 23.89 m kgs from 25.35 m kgs.

Export to Iraq between january and june had jumped by over ten times to 8.83 m kgs, while that to UAE had increased by 13.79 per cent to 12.13 m kgs. Export to the UK, Poland and Pakistan during the period was up by 13.97, 10.91 and 11.88 per cent respectively.