CIS tops the list of India’s tea exports

Tea Board has now released the export data up to January for the fiscal 2020-21 which shows a decline in terms of both the volume shipped and the value earned compared to 2019-20.

In the fiscal 2020-21 up to January, India’s export price rose to an average of ₹ 259.22 a kg from ₹ 228.02 for the same period in the previous fiscal.

However, this increase in price reduced the orders. Besides, the lockdown in many countries in the world’s fight against Covid-19 affected tea exports.

Consequently, the volume shipped in the 10 months of the fiscal declined to 172.46 million kg (mkg) from 207.99 mkg in the same period of 2019-20.

This lower volume pulled down the earnings to ₹ 4,470.48 crore from ₹ 4,742.59 crore.

Due to winter closure, large volumes of North Indian teas were out of market in February and March as well. Hence, with only two months’ data remaining, indications are that the shipments and earnings in the fiscal ending March 31, 2021, would be lower than March 31, 2020.

The CIS continued to top India’s export table till January at 42.64 mkg (previous fiscal: 50.30 mkg) valued at ₹ 809.52 crore (₹818.92 crore) with the unit price of ₹ 189.85 a kg (₹ 162.81).

Iran accounted for 24.72 mkg (40.70 mkg) valued at ₹ 666.76 crore (₹ 1134.07 crore) at the unit price of 269.72 a kg (₹ 278.64).

UAE, highest buyer

While shipments to most countries saw a decline, the UAE bought a higher volume of Indian tea, especially in the context of strengthening the overall immunity in the fight against Covid-19.

There was an improvement in the exports to the UAE on all parameters. The volume shipped rose to 10.92 mkg from 10.38 mkg despite the average price rising to ₹ 252.78 a kg from ₹ 222.35 resulting in the overall earnings rise to ₹ 276.04 crore from ₹ 230.80 crore.

There was, however, no shipment to Pakistan at all in 2020-21. In these ten months of 2019-20, Pakistan had imported 3.29 mkg of tea from India valued at ₹ 35.02 crore at the unit price of ₹ 106.44 a kg.