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Sri Lanka's tea crop for March this year - 24.8 Million kg is slightly higher than the figure anticipated by many analysts, considering the prolonged drought which continued till early April, and the mediocre quantity of 21.5 M kg in the preceding month was likely a cue for the lower expectations.

Comparisons with last year reflect a negative difference of 1.1 million kg (4.39%) for March while in February, the margin was a noteworthy 4.8 million kg or 18.34%. Narrowing of the deficit in the current month therefore augurs well for the industry.

All three elevations registered figures below last year. The High Grown crop was down 2.19% to 6.4 M kg whilst, Medium Grown fell 8.69% to 4.5 M kg and the Low Elevation dropped 3.91% to 13.7 M kg.

From January to end March therefore, is a cumulative production of 72.1 M kg this year, compared to 79.5 M kg in the previous year. The negative difference of 9.3% up to end March is much less than the difference of 11.6% reported as at end February. In terms of kilogram weight however, end February 2002 recorded only 6.2 M kg behind 2001, but at the end of March the gap widened to 7.4 M kg. The reason being a relatively bountiful February in 2001 and an average output in March of the same year.

Contributions from each of the three sectors for the cumulative figures of the two years indicate a 1.75% increase in the Higher Elevation to 19.5 M kg, a negative contribution of 3.73% from the Mid Elevation to 12.7 M kg and a significant 15.37% shortfall in the Low Grown Sector to 39.8 M kg.

(Source: John Keells Ltd)

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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