Sri Lanka’s tea production in 2018 was 303 Mnkg below the previous year’s quantity of 307 Mnkg.
In 2016 following the El-Nino drought, tea production slumped to 292 Mnkg. Sri Lanka tea production was in the range of 328 to 340 Mnkg during the period 2010 to 2015. In 2018 a combination of man-made and natural forces limited tea production. At a national level ad hoc policy changes on use of agro chemicals, work stoppage due to factors other than wage negotiations; combined with excessive rain in some months to limit production in the year.
Meanwhile world production of tea could well reach 6 bln kg in 2018.
A review of published data of the International Tea Committee (ITC) shows 2017 achieving 5.8 bln against 5.5bln in the year before. These numbers are driven to a great extent by China’s annual growth of 200 Mn kgs achieved each year since 2014. Ten years ago ITC showed world production of 3.9 bln kgs and since then growth of 54% would have been achieved to reach the 6 bln mark for the first time in the history of the global tea trade.
The production of green tea reached 1.77 bln kgs in 2017 an increase of 26% on the 2014 quantity of 1.41 bln kgs. Total tea production figures however, rose 12% from 5.21 bln kg in 2014 to 5.81 bln kg in 2017. Here again it is China who drives the numbers with 68% or 1.77 bln of its total tea production of 2.6 bln produced in 2017, being Green Tea. ITC states that in 2017 35% of all tea produced was green and we believe that it could reach 2 bln kg by 2018. Asia Siyaka
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