Sri Lanka records the lowest tea production in 26-years: report
ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Tea production is down 7.8 percent in September 2022 from a year earlier to 20.9 million kilograms while the total output for the nine months dipped 18 percent from the previous year as a currency collapse in the country drove up the cost of productions around 35 percent.
From January-September 2022, the total production is 192.37 million kilograms compared to 234.72 million kilograms for the same period in the previous year.
“This would be the lowest recorded for the period under review since 1996 where it recorded 188.40 million kilograms for the corresponding period,” industry data published by Forbes and Walkers Tea Brokers show.
“On a cumulative basis, all elevations have shown a decline over the corresponding period of 2021.”
Even in 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, tea production had totalled 201.43 million kilograms for the period.
Industry growers had said that some estates were cut off from fertilizers for up to 18 months and they warned that it will have a detrimental impact in the years to come.
The cost of production of tea growers has steeply risen by 30-35 percent so far this year as the country’s currency collapsed while they are still cut off from fertilizer despite a ban on agrochemicals being lifted.”
From electricity to labour to packaging – all the prices have hit the roof.
Plantations now have to pay higher wages to workers with inflation running at 70 percent.
Related: Sri Lanka tea cost of production up 30-35-pct, industry says
