July tea exports show MoM growth but stagnant YoY

• July tea exports recorded at 22.77 MnKgs
• January-July cumulative exports reach 134.99 MnKgs, down 8.8% YoY
• Iraq, Turkey and Russia emerge as top 3 importers

The tea exports in July increased on a month-on-month (MoM) basis to 22.77 million kilogrammes (MnKgs), while on a year-on-year (YoY) comparison, exports remained unchanged at 22.76 MnKgs, the provisional data from the Sri Lanka Tea Board showed.

A breakdown of the categories exported show a marginal increase in tea in bulk and tea bags, while tea packets have witnessed a marginal decline against the corresponding month in 2022.   The FOB value in July 2023 stood at Rs.1,615.31, a decrease of Rs.248.43 YoY, compared to Rs.1,863.74 of July 2022. According to Forbes & Walker Tea Brokers, negative variances were recorded in all main categories in US dollar terms.
Meanwhile, the cumulative analysis shows that for January-July 2023, exports totalled 134.99 MnKgs, an 8.8 percent contraction when compared with the tea quantities exported in the corresponding period in 2022 (148.05 MnKgs). 

Tea in bulk and packeted tea continue to show significant negative variances, while the remaining product categories recorded marginal increases.
While the FOB value for the period stood at Rs.1,827.58, an increase of Rs.431.84 when compared with that of January-July 2022, all categories showed gains in US dollar terms when compared to the corresponding period of 2022.
In terms of source markets, Iraq secured the top position for the January-July 2023 period, having imported a total of 18.29 MnKgs. However, it must be noted that the quantities imported by Iraq in the first seven months of 2023 were a 33 percent drop YoY. 
Sri Lanka is starting tea exports to Iran under a barter deal this month. The barter deal involves exporting US $ 5 million worth tea to Iran monthly, for 48 months, settling an outstanding oil bill of US $ 251 million.

Turkey, with 16.57 MnKgs, was at the second position, having doubled its imports YoY. Russia retained the third position, with over 15 percent YoY increase in exports, at 14.23 MnKgs.
The United Arab Emirates stood as the fourth largest importer of Ceylon Tea, while China emerged as the fifth. The other notable importers included Azerbaijan, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Chile and Syria.