Tea exports down marginally in Jan-Nov 2018

Kolkata, Jan 8 (IANS) India's tea exports decreased marginally to 225.76 million kg during the January-November period in 2018 from 226.04 million kg exported during same period the previous year, according to data from Tea Board India.

Provisional data from the Board also suggested that tea exports, in value terms, during the eleven month period was up by about 3.2 per cent to Rs 4,624.34 crore as against Rs 4,478.24 crore in the year-ago period.

Exports to neighbouring Pakistan and China went up while shipments to Germany, the US and CIS countries were down in volume terms.

Tea exports to Pakistan stood at 14.56 million kg, up by over 15.5 per cent from 12.60 million kg exported in the corresponding months of 2017.

Exports to China were up at 9.12 million kg as against 7.65 million kg the previous year.

The board data also said tea shipments to CIS countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and others, were at 54.87 million kg in the January-November period of 2018, down from 58.41 million kg in the same period the previous year.

Exports to the UK at 14.37 million kg were down marginally in the period under review while exports at 7.99 million kg to Germany were also down from the 2017 figures.

About 9.38 million kg of tea was exported to the US, down by 27.9 per cent from 13.01 million kg shipped out in 2017.

Tea exports to Iran, however, went up to 27.26 million kg in the period from 26.10 million kg in the year-ago period.

As much as 10.76 million kg was shipped out to Egypt during the first 11 months of the last calendar year, up from 9.68 million kg in the previous year.