May tea exports drop but prices high

• Over 14% drop year-on-year tempered by good prices
• Floods reduce tea production by 1.4 kg million   

 The total quantity of tea exported for May 2017, including re-exports with imported tea, amounted to 24.31 Mn/kg, showing a significant decline of 3.05 Mn/kg or 14.33% compared to the same period last year, tea brokers said yesterday. 

However, with the substantial increase in FOB price per kg from Rs. 617.51 to Rs. 824.43, total export earnings have significantly increased by Rs. 6.91 billion (+52.65%) against the corresponding period last year, Ceylon Tea Brokers said. 

Cumulative exports for the period January to May 2017, including re-exports with imported tea, amounted to 112.84 Mn/kg, showing a decrease of 5.05 Mn/kg (-4.29%) compared to the same period last year.

However, with the increase in FOB price per kg from Rs. 607.45 to Rs. 791.07, cumulative export earnings amounted to Rs. 89.26 billion, showing a significant gain of Rs. 17.65 billion (+24.65%) as against the same period last year.

Equivalent USD export earnings for the period January to May 2017 amounted to approximately $ 0.59 billion as against $ 0.49 billion in the same period last year, showing an increase of approximately $ 0.10 billion.

The country-wise analysis of exports shows that Russia remains the largest importer of Sri Lankan tea for January-May 2017 followed by Turkey and Iraq.

Sri Lanka’s tea production for May 2017 amounted to 29.46 Mn/kg, vis-à-vis 30.82 Mn/kg in 2016 (-1.4 Mn/kg). 

Cumulative Tea Production for January/May 2017 amounted to 129.08 Mn/kg vis- à-vis 128.58 Mn /kg in 2016 (+0.5 Mn /kg). Elevation-wise analysis shows that for May 2017 High Growns showed a decrease of -0.74 Mn/kg, Medium Growns -0.19 Mn/kg and Low Growns -0.44 Mn/kg respectively when compared to the same period last year.