Tea exports decline by 20 per cent in April-September

NEW DELHI: Tea exports from India fell by 20 per cent to 81.85 million kg in the first six months of the current fiscal due to drop in outbound shipments of the brew from North and South India, latest Tea Board data said.

The country had shipped 102.62 million kg of tea in the April-September period of the 2011-12 fiscal.

Shipments of the brew from North India declined by 10 per cent to 47.64 million kg in April-September of 2012-13 fiscal from 53.21 million kg in the previous fiscal, while, tea exports from South India fell by 31 per cent to 34.21 million kg compared to 49.41 million kg during the same period.

On a quarterly basis, tea exports registered a decline in the first and second quarters in the current financial year as compared to the previous financial year.

Tea shipments in April-June this fiscal declined by 22 per cent to 30.70 million kg from 39.57 million kg in the same quarter of last fiscal, whereas, the exports of the brew fell by 19 per cent to 51.15 million kg in July-September quarter of 2012-13 from 63.05 million kg in the year-ago period.

In the last calendar year, tea exports declined by 13 per cent to 192.87 million kg from 222.02 million kg in 2010.

India, the world's second-largest producer and the biggest consumer of tea, exports the brew to Middle Eastern countries, the US and the EU.