February tea output rises 14%

REUTERS: Sri Lanka’s tea output in February rose 14 percent from a year earlier due to favourable weather and a lower base last year, the state-run Tea Board said yesterday.  

The production in the first two months of the year rose 14.1 percent from the same period last year. 
“Good agro-climatic conditions are the reason for the increased production,” Sri Lanka Tea Board Director General S.A. Siriwardena told Reuters. The island nation’s tea output rose 5 percent to 307.1 million kg last year, recovering from a seven-year low of 292.6 million kg hit in the previous year. 

The industry officials expect the production to reach 320 million kg in 2018 if the weather holds but a ban of cost-effective weedkillers, disruption to regular agricultural practices and the high cost of fertilisers could impact the production outlook. 

Tea production in 2017 was impacted by severe drought followed by flooding, the poor application of fertilisers, a government ban on pesticides and restricted labour. 

Tea is Sri Lanka’s top agricultural export commodity and one of the main foreign currency earners for the US $ 81 billion economy.