April tea exports expand marginally by 1.3% YoY

Tea Exports for the month of April 2024 totalled 16.38 million Kgs, a marginal increase of 0.21 million Kgs when compared with April 2023. 

Tea in Bulk together with Instant and Green Tea have shown improvement, whilst Tea Packets and Tea Bags have recorded a decline in comparison with the corresponding month of the previous year, Forbes and Walker Tea Brokers said.

Accordingly, January-April 2024 cumulative exports totalled 78.70 million Kgs, expanding by 8.45 million Kgs from January-April 2023. All categories except for Instant Tea continue to show steady growth against the same period of the previous year.

FOB value in April 2024 was recorded at Rs. 1,745.45, a decline of Rs. 111.17 YoY compared to Rs. 1,856.62 of April 2023. All categories have witnessed negative variances in all categories in LKR except Instant Tea. Tea in Bulk, Tea Bags and Instant have recorded marginal increases in USD values.
For the January - April period, FOB value for the period stood at Rs. 1,772.36, a decrease of Rs.223.93 vis-à-vis Rs. 1,996.29 of January-April 2023. 

Here, all categories have showed significant negative variances in LKR value and a marginal decrease in USD terms only on Tea Packets and Instant Tea, whilst the other categories have recorded a positive variance when compared to the corresponding period in 2023.
In terms of markets, for the four months ended April, Iraq ranked as the largest importers of Ceylon Tea with a total of 10.24 million Kgs, an increase of 37 percent YoY. The UAE ranked second having imported 8.49 million Kgs of tea from Sri Lanka, and Russia ranked third, importing 8.27 million Kgs. Türkiye has seen a 39 percent decline against the corresponding period of the previous year. Iran has gained 198 percent YoY and moved up to fifth position from the 15th position held in 2023. Other notable importer countries are China, Saudi Arabia followed by Azerbaijan, Germany and Chile.