Tea production picking up

Charumini de Silva

Sri Lanka has recorded a tea crop of 21.6 million kilograms (Mkgs) in February. This is around 1.8 mkgs lower than the corresponding period last year. A crop of 42.6 mkgs has been harvested during January and February, which is 9.3 mkgs lower than the crop attained during the corresponding period of 2010 Lanka Commodity Brokers Limited said.

The High and Medium elevations have shown deficits of 2.2 Mkgs and 1.9 Mkgs, while the crop of low growns is 5.1 Mkgs below last year’s statistics. Lanka Commodity Brokers Limited Consultant Jehan Algama said although production figures show a negative outlook in the first two months, auction prices indicates a significant growth compared to the same period last year.

For this year up-to-date the Colombo auction’s total average tea prices has increased from Rs 382.91 to Rs 394.67, which is an improvement of 11.76 percent.

Even though the auction volumes were low the prices were higher than last year.

He said with the favourable weather conditions tea crops will increased significantly. There will be marked growth in high and medium grown tea production. This increase of tea production will help to catch up the low performance during the first two months. “We expect that the country will have an increased tea production by next month,” Algama said.

Japan bought its usual quota last week amidst its natural calamity, which is a good indication, he said.

Rubber production reached its highest levels throughout the first two months. At present, one kilogram of crepe and sheet rubber is sold over Rs 500. Due to the massive earthquake and tsunami, which triggered in Japan recently the production of automobiles has declined.

Nevertheless, rubber prices will improve gradually as the situation in Japan is a temporary setback. With the massive expansion in the automobile industry production will stabilize and as a result the increase of global rubber demand will lead to a price increase in the world market too.