India's April-September tea exports drop by 2 per cent

New Delhi: India's tea exports declined by 2 per cent to Rs 2,084.06 crore in the first six months of the current fiscal. In the April-September period of last year, the total value of tea exports was Rs 2,124.97 crore, according to Tea Board's latest data.

In terms of quantity, the exports have dipped to 101.04 million kg from 106.36 million kg in the corresponding period last fiscal. As per the Tea Board, the exports in value terms remained slightly higher in the six-month period of the 2016-17 fiscal on better unit value realisation. The export realisation was Rs 206.26 per kg as against Rs 199.79 per kg a year ago.

Tea export from North Indian states -- Assam, West Bengal and others - was marginally lower at 58.10 million kg in the April-September period as against 58.38 million kg in the year-ago period.

Similarly, the overseas shipment from South Indian states -- Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka -- was down at 42.94 million kg as against 47.98 million kg in the said period. Whereas, tea production is estimated to have been 795.89 million kg in the first six months of this year, which is almost same as it was in the year-ago period.

India is the second-largest tea producer in the world after China, with over 70 per cent of the beverage produced, being consumed in the country itself. In the full 2015-16 fiscal, the country sold 232.92 million kg in the overseas market and the export realisation was about Rs 4,493.10 crore.