India’s tea export earnings in calendar 2020 have fallen by 10.08 per cent over 2019 despite a price rise because of a crash in the volume of shipment.
According to the latest data available with the Tea Board, the average price of India’s tea in the export market rose to ₹ 248.55 a kg from ₹ 227.55 in 2019, marking a gain of 9.23 per cent.
However, the higher price brought down the export orders. Besides, the Covid-led lockdowns in many countries , disturbances in the exchange market as also the banking transactions affected the purchase of tea in many countries.
Consequently, the volume shipped dropped to 207.58 million kg (mkg) from 252.15 mkg in 2019, marking a loss of 17.68 per cent.
This lower volume pulled down the overall earnings from tea shipments to ₹ 5,159.46 crore from ₹ 5,737.66 crore in 2019, marking a decline of 10.08 per cent.
The same trend prevailed in the shipments of both North Indian and South Indian teas.
In the North, the unit price rose by 8 per cent to ₹ 274.14 a kg but the volume shipped dropped by 18.98 per cent to 123.43 mkg resulting in the overall earnings from tea exports to fall by 12.50 per cent to ₹ 3,383.82 crore.
In the South, the unit price rose by 12.59 per cent to ₹ 211.01 a kg but the volume shipped dropped by 15.68 per cent to 84.15 mkg resulting in the overall earnings from tea exports to fall by 5.07 per cent to ₹ 1775.64 crore.
