Ceylon Tea exports contracts 8.7% Year-on-Year

• Tea exports totals 21.54 MnKgs in September
• All categories show negative variance
• September records highest FOB value in a calendar month
• Iraq remains the largest importer of Ceylon Tea, followed by Russia and UAE

Sri Lanka exported a total of 21.54 MnKgs of tea for the month of September, a 1.88 MnKg decrease when compared with the corresponding period in 2021.

Latest data from Sri Lanka Customs show that all categories shown a negative variance compared to September last year.

Cumulative analysis shows that for the January to September 2022 period exports totalled 192.60 MnKgs. The total quantities exported so far for the first nine months of the year is 9 percent lower than the total exports recorded for the corresponding period in 2021.

Here again, all categories have witnessed a decline in comparison with the corresponding period of 2021, highlighted Forbes and Walker Tea Brokers in its analysis.

For the month of September, FOB value of Rs. 1,981.63 recorded the highest ever in a calendar month surpassing the previous best of Rs. 1,951.82 recorded in August 2022. The FOB value has seen an increase of Rs. 1,083.79 compared to Rs. 897.84 of September 2021 and in US$ terms a gain of 0.99.

FOB value of Rs. 1,527.71 records an increase of Rs. 600.50 compared to Rs. 927.21 of January-September 2021. Here, the total average shows a positive variance in US$ terms when compared to the same period of 2021.

Iraq has remained the largest importer of Ceylon Tea for the first nine months of 2022 ending September. Exports to that country expanded by 25 percent Year-on-Year (YoY). Russia ranks as the second largest market for Sri Lanka’s tea exports, procuring a total of 17.80 MnKgs. Despite its position, imports of Ceylon Tea to the Federation contracted by 12 percent when compared with January - September 2021 period.

Coming third is the Unite Arab Emirates, importing a total of 16.71 MnKgs of tea from Sri Lanka. 

Other notable markets for Ceylon Tea include Türkiye, Iran, Libya and Azerbaijan for the period January-September 2022.

Forbes and Walker Tea Brokers pointed out that a significant decrease in imports is reported from Türkiye (55 percent), China (19 percent), Chile (11 percent), Syria (22 percent), Japan (10 percent) and Jordon (24 percent) YoY.

A notable increase in imports was recorded from Azerbaijan (10 percent), Germany (8 percent), USA (6 percent) and Poland (13 percent) YoY as expanding markets for ‘Ceylon Tea.’