Lockdown caused Tea production to fall by 54% in April

Tea output fell by 54% to 39.02 million kilogram in the month of April, due to severe restrictions that were placed after the lockdown was implemented in the country, said the Tea Board of India. Last year, the total production stood at 84.49 million kg for the same period.

The state of Assam has been hit hard by the restrictions as it saw a 76% decline in output. The production dropped from 44.98 million kg last year to 13.21 million kg this year.

However, production in South India rose from 14.02 million kg to 15.11 million kg; an increase of 7%. It is expected that India’s Tea production could fall by as much as by 9 % or 120 million kg. The Tea market in India employs more than one million people and the half of the workers employed in the Industry are women who could lose their employment.

The Industry was already suffering from cost of inputs which were increasing more than the rate of the Tea. Furthermore, labour force had also declined due to the lockdown which was an added factor in the decline in production. India is the second largest producer of tea in the world after China and produced 1.35 billion kg of tea was produced in 2019.

The crisis will surely hit the Tea market and the government needs to step in to make sure that the stakeholders manage to get over this crisis.