Sri Lankan tea production fell 23.4 percent in February from a year, the Sri Lanka Tea Board said, blaming the lingering fallout of a strike in December and a rain shortfall for the drop.
Tea output fell to 17.56 million kg from 22.93 million kg in February 2006. "It is mainly because of the strike period, when there were many activities that were neglected fertilising, pruning, bushes becoming overgrown," Lalith Hettiarachchi, chairman of the Sri Lanka Tea Board, told Reuters.
"Of course there have also been some weather conditions, which also affected production, not enough rain, especially in low-grown areas," he added. "Until the end of April we expect (production) to be low." A wage strike by the bulk of the island's 400,000 tea estate workers in December also impacted tea output in January, when production fell 14.4 percent from a year.
However, Hettiarachchi forecast tea output would total around 315 million kg in 2007, higher than the 310.8 million kg harvested last year and above his previous forecast of 310 million kg.