February tea output down 10.6%

Reuters: Sri Lanka’s February tea output fell 10.6% from a year earlier due to the prevailing drought, the State-run Tea Board said on Thursday.

Production in the first two months was down 1.7%.

“It’s the bad weather. The prevailing drought situation affected the production,” Sri Lanka Tea Board Director General S. A. Siriwardena told Reuters. “The drought will continue for the next few months.”

Sri Lanka’s 2015 tea output fell 2.7% from the previous year and missed forecasts for the second consecutive year due to heavy rains.

Tea, Sri Lanka’s top agricultural export commodity, is one of the main foreign currency earners for the $82.2 billion economy.