MUMBAI: India’s tea exports facing a downward trend as in April to September the exports fell 5 percent from a year ago to 101.04 million kg as key buyer Pakistan trimmed purchases, the state-run Tea Board said in a statement.
Exports to Pakistan fell 48 percent during the period to 4.34 million kg, while exports to Iran rose 31.3 percent to 10.90 million kg, the Board said.
India, the world’s second-biggest tea producer, exports CTC (crush-tear-curl) grade mainly to Egypt, Pakistan and the UK, and the orthodox variety to Iraq, Iran and Russia.
According to a news report India’s tea exports are expected to fall in 2016, hurt by the impact of weak crude oil prices on the Middle East economy, a devalued pound and lower consumption of black tea in the UK, and rising tensions with Pakistan.
Lower demand from the global markets has already pulled down the price of good-quality tea by 8-10% compared with this time last year. In 2015, India shipped out 233 million kg of tea.
India ships around 20 million kg of tea to the UK every year and any weakness to the economy of that country could hurt the shipments. In the first eight months of 2016, exports to the UK dropped 12.64% from a year earlier.
