December 2016 was a relative better month for the tea industry in the Nilgiris as production increased over December 2015 and managed to be on par with the five-year average output for the month. Tea companies have informed Tea Board that their production in December 2016 rose to 0.95 million kg (mkg) from 0.74 mkg in December 2015. However, because of adverse weather in most months of 2016, the overall production in the calendar dropped to 11.92 mkg from 15.45 mkg. This fall of 3.53 mkg marked a decline of 22.85 per cent.