May tea crop nudges up

The country’s tea crop of 33.6 mkgs recorded for May 2013 reflects a 0.9 mkgs higher than the output achieved during the corresponding month last year.
Lanka Commodity Brokers said whilst the output from the high grown plantations has shown a drop of 458,320 kgs, the crop recorded from the medium and low elevations recorded gains of 109,433 kgs and 1,307,377 kgs respectively.
“There was fairly widespread rainfall in May and although plantations in the medium and low elevations were able to benefit from this, the high grown plantations experienced too much rain coupled with very dull conditions and did not have sufficient sunshine to spur growth,” Lanka Commodity Brokers added.
During the period January to May, 2013 a total of 148.9 mkgs has been harvested which is a yoy increase of 11.2 mkgs.
The low grown sector has contributed the most with a surplus of 6.8 mkgs, followed by high grown at 3.0 mkgs and medium elevation teas at 1.3 mkgs, according to Lanka Commodity Brokers.