Tea Industry looking up after bad patch: TTA

Kochi, Sep 20: The scenario for the tea industry was beginning to look up after a bad patch of five years, P T Thomas, Chairman, Tea Trade Association(TTA) of Cochin said.

Addressing the Annual General Meeting(AGM) of the association here last evening, Mr Thomas said the Indian tea production in 2005 stood at 927.98 million kg, as against 820.20 million kg in 2004, an increase of 13.14 per cent.

The South Indian tea production during 2005 increased to 227 million kg from 167.20 million kg in 2004, an increase of 3.5 per cent while the North Indian production increased to 700.97 million kg from 634.5 million kg, an increase of 10.47 per cent, he added.

He said among the auction centres, Cochin continued to maintain pre-eminence with 49.5 per cent of the total sales, as against 34.18 for Coonoor and 16.28 per cent for Coimbatore.

The average price realised from the Cochin auction centre during 2005 was Rs 49 per kg, as against Rs 36 for Coonoor and Rs 40 for Coimbatore.

UNI