Oct tea output jumps 36.2% on good weather

Colombo (Reuters): Tea output jumped 36.2% due to good weather in October and a lower base last year, the state-run Tea Board said on Friday. 

Production in the first ten months of the year rose 8.7% from the same period last year.

“It is mainly because of the good agro climatic conditions during the month,” Sri Lanka Tea Board Director-General S.A. Siriwardena told Reuters.

 Siriwardena said the country could achieve 305-310 million kilos by the end of the year, compared with last year’s 292.4 million kilos.

He also said the sharp rise in October output was also due to a lower base in the same month last year.

Lower use of fertilisers, weak market prices, bad weather and a government ban on the use of pesticides resulted in a decline in production last year.

Sri Lanka’s tea output hit a seven-year low in 2016, falling 11.1% in its third straight year of declining production.

Tea export volume dropped to a 14-year low in 2016, broker data showed. Export earnings fell 5.3% to $ 1.26 billion in 2016 from $ 1.33 billion in 2015. Sri Lanka recorded its highest earnings of $ 1.63 billion in 2014.