Tea Exports Hit Rs. 142 Bn.

Tea export earnings in the first nine months of the year increased by Rs. 10.6 billion year on year (YoY) to Rs. 141.9 billion, Forbes & Walker (F&W) in a report said.
Export earnings in the first eight months of the year also increased by the same margin to Rs. 123.1 billion (see also The Sunday Leader of 6.10.13.).

Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) in a recent report said that tea export earnings in the first eight months of the year increased by 8.1% YoY to US$ ($) 962.6 million.

Tea exports in August totalled $ 142.8 million compared to $ 95.7 million a year earlier.

Meanwhile F&W said that export volumes in the first nine months of the year however decreased by 1.4 million kilos YoY to 234.5 million kg.

Tea in bulk and tea in packets, the two lowest earners, showed a decrease in export volumes, while tea in bags, the second highest earner after green tea, showed an increase, the company further said.

Tea export earnings in September stagnated at Rs. 18.5 billion, while volumes declined by 3.1 million kgs. to 28.7 million kg., F&W further said.

Sri Lanka’s top 10 tea importers thus far for the year have had been CIS, Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, UAE, Kuwait, Japan, Jordan and Libya in that order respectively, while Libya which imported 13.6 million kg. of Sri Lanka tea in the first nine months of last year, saw this quantity considerably reduced to 4.9 million kg. in the same period this year.

CBSL said that earnings from agricultural exports grew on a YoY basis, by 41% to  247 million in August 2013 mainly due to an increase in tea and spice exports which account for more than three fourths of agricultural exports.

The impressive growth of tea exports by 49.3% in August 2013 was a combined outcome of a 43.3% increase in export volumes along with an increase in the average price by 4.2%, it said.

An increase in tea exports to Turkey and Iraq mainly contributed to this increase, CBSL added.