Kolkata, Dec 10 (IANS): India's estimated tea production fell by around 3.7 per cent to 176.44 million kg in October from 183.23 million kg produced in the year-ago month, according to data from the Tea Board India released on Monday.
According to provisional data from the Board, tea exports during the January-October period were up by about 1.17 per cent to 200.38 million kg as against 198.06 million kg exported in the year-ago period and in value terms, exports during the first 10 months of the current calendar year were at Rs 4,061.81 crore as compared to Rs 3,911.05 crore in the corresponding period last year.
Estimated production data suggested that the fall in absolute terms during October was due to a drop in crop production in north India.
Assam's estimated production for the month decreased to 96.21 million kg as compared to 104.13 million kg produced in the corresponding month of 2017, while West Bengal's production for the month stood at 50.68 million kg, down from 53.96 million kg produced in the same month of last year.
Taking Assam, West Bengal and others together, the estimated crop production during October in north India decreased to 150.55 million kg as against 162.06 million kg produced in October 2017.
In south India, including Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, the tea production was at 25.89 million kg in October as against 21.17 million kg produced in the same month last year.
However, on the export front, tea shipments to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and others, were at 51.07 million kg in the January-October period of 2018, down from 52.72 million kg in the same period of last year.
Exports to the UK at 12.32 million kg remained stagnant in the period under review, as against 11.98 million kg exported in the year-ago period while shipments at 7.55 million kg to Germany during the period were down marginally from 8.66 million kg exported in the corresponding months of 2017.
However, tea exports to Iran went up marginally to 23.04 million kg in the period under review, from 22.13 million kg in the year-ago period.
As much as 9.63 million kg of tea was shipped out to Egypt during the first 10 months of the current year, up from 8.54 million kg in the year-ago period.
Tea exports to neighbouring Pakistan stood at 13.07 million kg in the period, up by over 22 per cent from 10.65 million kg exported in the corresponding months of 2017.
India's tea exports to China at 7.76 million kg during the period were up from 6.5 million kg in the year-ago period.