Tea Exports Bring Rs. 180 Bn.

Sri Lanka’s tea export earnings in the first 11 months of the year increased by 10.7% year on year (YoY) to Rs. 180.02 billion, Forbes & Walker (F&W) in a report said.
Tea exports in November increased by Rs. 2.2 billion to Rs. 18.8 billion.
In volume terms, tea exports in the first 11 months gained by 1.7 million kilos YoY to 290.6 million kilos. However tea exports in November decreased by 0.5 million kg. to 27.2 million kg. YoY.
Value added tea in the form of packeted tea gained ascendancy over the export of low, value added bulk tea, in the first 11 months of the year.
Nevertheless, from a quantitative perspective, bulk exports occupied second place, beating other forms of value added exports such as “tea in bags,” instant teas and green tea.
F&W data which showed marginal discrepancies, showed that packeted teas comprised a volume of 141.7 million kg. out of a total of 289 kg. exported in the first 11 months of the year.
Bulk teas comprised 119.3 million kg., and the balance, other forms of value added tea exports.
The biggest export market was CIS, followed by Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, UAE and Kuwait, F&W said.