Chairman of the Tea Exporters Association Sanjaya Herath predicted yesterday that the bullish prices on Ceylon Tea will remain till around June 2020 until India resumes tea production domestically.
In view of the tight global supply situation, there will be a strong demand for Ceylon Tea in the short term and the prices will remain strong at the next tea auctions running up to end of May/ early June 2020, he said.
However, the strong demand from Iran can be expected until India resumes their exports. Once the Indian suppliers commence tea exports to Iran under the special trading arrangements, Sri Lanka may witness decline in Iran business. One other issue faced by the exporters is their inability to travel abroad for promotion of Ceylon Tea. Meanwhile the COVID 19 has brought mixed results for tea producing countries as some are facing losses in tea crop due to lock down situation while countries like Sri Lanka have witnessed unprecedented price hikes at the auction.
The Indian Tea Board and Tea Association have estimated that loss in tea production in India due to the lock down could be over 100 million kg, about 80 million kg in the North and more than 25 million in the South of the country.
In the months of February and March, the tea production in China too suffered as the workers were unable to pluck tea in Hubei province due to the lock down situation.
India produces about 1200 million kg of tea annually and out of which 15-20 % is orthodox tea.
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