Sri Lankan tea output in February jumped 82.5 percent as higher prices prompted planters to ramp up production, while a low base in the same month last year contributed to the favourable comparison, the Sri Lanka Tea Board said on Tuesday. Tea output rose to 23.51 million kg, from 12.88 million kg in February 2009.
February output was not unusually high and in line with the previous years, but 2009 February production was unusually low due to adverse weather pattern and poor fertiliser application, said Lalith Hettiarachchi, chairman of the Sri Lanka Tea Board. Average tea prices have risen 32 percent from a year earlier, the Tea Board data showed.
The Indian Ocean island nation's March crop is expected to be affected by dry weather, but the board expects full-year production to come in at about 300 million kg, 3.5 percent higher than last year's total output of 289.8 million kg. The board has also said they are expecting export revenue between $1.2-$1.3 billion this year. Output for the first two months of this year rose 68.9 percent to 51.97 million kg, from 30.77 million kg a year earlier, due to high prices and favourable weather conditions.
Output fell 9 percent last year from a record 318.7 million kg in 2008 due to adverse weather conditions and lack of fertiliser along with a labour strike. Sri Lanka's earnings from tea exports fell 6.8 percent to $1.2 billion in 2009, compared with a year earlier. Tea is one of the $40-billion Sri Lankan economy's main foreign currency revenue earners, along with remittances, textile and garment exports and tourism.
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