India’s tea production this year will fall below last year's tally of 979 million kgs as a result of the large-scale destruction of crops due to excessive rain and pest attack in north India, a top Tea Board official said. “The overall production will be marginally down this year. But, whether it will go down by 10 million kgs or 20 million kgs is difficult to tell,” Tea Board chairman, Mr Basudeb Banerjee, said.
Stating that a concrete picture would emerge only later in the month, Mr Banerjee said that overall production would fall as first half’s growth could not be sustained because of rains and pest attacks in North India, which produces 75 per cent of India’s total tea production.