COLOMBO May 23 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's tea production in April fell 5.6 percent from a year earlier due to a high base effect as attractive global prices and good weather resulted in high output in the same month last year, the state-run tea board said on Monday.
Tea output in April fell to 28.5 million kg against 30.2 million kg in the same month last year. But production in the first four months has risen 2 percent to 106.3 million kg from 104.2 million in the same period last year.
"Last year, the base was high due to high global tea prices and favorable weather conditions," H.D. Hemarathne, director general of the Sri Lanka Tea Board, told Reuters.
Hemarathne expects full-year tea output to hit a new record high surpassing 2010 tea production of 329.4 million kg.
The Tea Board hopes revenue from Sri Lanka's No. 1 agricultural export crop also will rise to a record high of more than $1.5 billion this year, from $1.4 billion last year despite turmoil in the island nation's major tea exporting countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
Sri Lanka's earnings from tea exports rose 17.6 percent in the first two months of 2011, the central bank's latest data showed. Earnings gained 16.1 percent to $1.4 billion last year.
Tea is one of the $50 billion economy's main foreign currency earners, along with remittances, garment exports and tourism.
source - af.reuters.com
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