Despite a fall in the output in India, the world’s largest producer of black tea, the global black tea production has marginally increased due to a substantial rise in Kenya’s output.
“Our compilation shows that the global black tea production till now has risen to 1881.12 mkg from 1846.66 mkg in the corresponding months of 2017. This increase of 34.46 mkg marks a marginal growth of 1.87 per cent”, Rajesh Gupta, compiler of annual Global Tea Digest, told Business Line.
Besides India, Sri Lanka and Uganda posted decline in production due to adverse weather condition for most part of 2018. India’s output has fallen by 9.57 mkg (a marginal 0.85 per cent) to dip to 1117.62 mkg. Sri Lanka’s production dropped by 1.92 per cent to dip to 251.76 mkg while Uganda lost as much as 55.10 per cent to produce 6.60 mkg.
On the other hand, Kenya enjoyed favourable weather for most part of 2018 helping the nation produce 395.51 mkg from346.98 mkg, marking a growth of 14 per cent. Bangladesh and Malawi also reported a higher output.
India continued to top the global black tea production table with Kenya and Sri Lanka following at a distant.