Sri Lanka October tea crop at last year’s level

The Hapag-Lloyd delegation including, Capt. Prateek Gandhi – Director Operations, Hapag-Lloyd, Regional Office, Dubai,Mr. Faheem Mir – Manager - Operations, Hapag-Lloyd, Regional Office, Dubai,Mr. Lalith Witanachchi – Vice President, Hapag-Lloyd Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, Mr. Mindaka Dassanayake – General Manager, Hapag-Lloyd Lanka (Pvt) Ltd.,Mr. Rohan Ranasinghe – Terminal Operations Manager, Hapag-Lloyd AG and Mr. Iqram Cuttilan – Managing Director, Aitken Spence Shipping Ltd poses for a pic with SLPA’s Chairman -Admiral Sirimewan Ranasinghe and the Managing Director - Eng. Ganaka Hemachandra. SLPA's Vice Chairman - Eng. Herath M.P. Jayawardhana, Director (Operations) - Mrs. G. Zavia Miskin and Director (Marketing and BD) - Mr. H J K U Kumara are also present.

Nov 25, 2010 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's tea production in October 2010 was 26.6 million kilos, almost the same as a year ago but the crop in the 10 months period was much higher, the Tea Board said.

Low growns, which make up more than half the crop, rose 4.9 percent to 17.5 million kilos in October 2010 from a year ago while high growns fell 17.5 percent to 5.1 million kilos.

Tea production in the 10 months to October 2010 was up 16.6 percent to 235.5 million kilos compared with the same period last year.

Production of CTC (cut, tea and curl) teas, a very strongly flavoured, quickly infusing tea often used in teabags, was up 18 percent in the January - October 2010 period from the year before.

Forbes & Walker Tea Brokers said in a recent report that with global tea production during the third quarter of 2010 being relatively low the cumulative excess in production compared with 2009, a low cropping year, may have reduced to a little below 80 million kilos.

"Comparing 2010 with 2008, a year with a more balanced production, would reflect a very marginal surplus which is likely to be absorbed with the year-on-year increases in demand," they said.

"Therefore, it wou