Sri Lanka's tea output fell 15.3 percent in January due to adverse weather, poor application of fertilisers and a government ban on pesticides, the state-run Tea Board said on Monday. "Mainly it is the weather; in addition to that, other factors like (poor application of) fertiliser and (government ban on) weedicide also impacted," said Sri Lanka Tea Board Director-General S.A. Siriwardena.
Siriwardena did not gave a forecast for 2017 and the board said needs to study the weather pattern before forecasting 2017 tea production. The Indian Ocean island nation's tea output hit a seven-year low in 2016, falling 11.1 percent in its third straight year of declining production due to adverse weather. Tea exports dropped to a 14-year low, broker data showed. Tea is Sri Lanka's top agricultural export commodity and one of the main foreign currency earners for the $82 billion economy. Export earnings fell 5.3 percent to $1.26 billion in 2016 from $1.33 billion in 2015. Sri Lanka recorded its highest earnings of $1.63 billion in 2014.
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