Tea industry ends 2012 with marginal drop in crop

The tea industry has ended 2012 with a marginal drop in crop over the previous year, though in the month of December there was a growth. Following are excerpts from the Ceylon Tea Brokers analysis on the tea production:

Sri Lanka tea production for the month of December 2012 amounted to 25.99 million kilograms vis-à-vis 25.70 million kilograms (+0.28 m kgs) in 2011.
Production from the three elevations mainly High, Mid and Low Growns have improved marginally in December 2012 in comparison to the same period last year.
Cumulative production for the period January to December 2012 amounted to 326.3 million kilograms as against 327.6 million kilograms for the same period 2011, showing a decline of 1.3 million kilograms.
On analysing the cumulative production figures, High Growns have declined 5.4 million kilograms in comparison to 2011. Medium Grown have declined 0.3 million kilograms, however, Low Grown productions shows an increase of 4.5 million kilograms YoY.
Sri Lanka tea production for 2012 ended up marginally lower to 2011. This was mainly attributed to the inclement weather conditions which prevailed in the country in the first half of the year. The third quarter of the year saw an increase in production to narrow the deficit of production to 1.3 million kilograms by end of the year in comparison to 2011. Other major tea producing countries, mainly Kenya and India, are expected to record a decline in production for 2012.