Sri Lankan tea production fell, export rises in 2003

Sri Lanka remained the world's largest tea exporter in 2003, shipping record amounts even as total production fell two percent.
The island exported 298.3 million kgs (658 million lb) of tea last year, beating the previous record in 2001 by 3.77 million kgs (8.31 million lb), John Keells Commodity Brokers said on Wednesday.
But the Sri Lanka Tea Board said last month production fell 2.2 percent in 2003, after plantations were hit by the island's worst flooding in half a century last May.
Kenya is the second biggest exporter of tea and India the largest overall producer.