Sri Lanka’s Tea exports to Ukraine drops 55-pct from Jan-May 2022
ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Tea exports to Ukraine dropped 55 percent to 755,120 kilograms in the five months to May 2022, down from 1.6 million a year ago, after Russia invaded the country, industry data showed.
Exports to Russia also dropped 19.4 percent to 8.4 million kilograms up to May 2022 from 10.5 million a year ago, data published by Ceylon Tea Brokers showed.
There was also a steep drop in exports to Turkey, which shares a border with Ukraine. Shipments of tea dropped 57 percent.
Turkey also has a central bank like Sri Lanka and its currency has collapsed after money was printed to keep rates down.
Iraq is the top buyer of Sri Lanka’s tea taking in 19.4 million compared to 12.4 million kilograms in 2021, a 55.9 percent increase in quantity.
UAE came in second buying 8.8 million kilograms of tea, up from 7.6 million kilograms in 2021.
Russia was third with 8.46 million kilograms.
Whereas China has bought only 4.8 million kilograms or 24 percent less compared to the previous year’s 6.3 million kilograms. (Colombo/Jul03/2022)