Tea production in India has drastically decreased during the lockdown. This indicates that there may be a rise in the prices of tea in the country. There has been a steep decline of 41.4 percent in tea production during March. April saw a steep decline of 53.8 percent. Production declined by 28.3 percent in May and eight percent in June. According to estimates, tea production will decline by 37 percent this year, after which it can be 878 thousand tonnes.

Production reduced by 26 percent in six months

In the six months of January to June, production declined by 26 percent to a mere 348.2 thousand tonnes. When the situation was expected to improve after the lockdown, Assam faced a flood problem. Assam received heavy rains in May, June, and July, affecting tea production. Due to this, the supply has also almost collapsed. Many companies do not even have the raw material for processing (leaf-to-grain process). Traders say that a new tea crop arrives in March. This leads to a fall in prices. Which continues till October. But this time the case is completely opposite. Despite the arrival of a new crop, there is a bump up in prices.

Flood-affected production

Most of the tea is produced in July. Assam produces high-quality tea in July. About 50 percent of the total production in India is in Assam. But due to heavy floods in July, large quantities of tea plants were destroyed in Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Golaghat districts. Due to this, only 132.8 thousand tonnes of tea was produced in Assam during this period.

How much did the price increase?

The average tea price in the country has increased by 40 to 60 percent. The price of tea in Guwahati rose 52 percent to Rs 217 per kg in the first auction in May. In the coming months, due to the impact of production, its burden on the general public can increase further and tea leaves can become quite expensive.