1996 has opened with a cheerful note for the tea industry. Contrary to its own apprehensions that the 1995 output would fall short of 1994 by 20 million kgs both the Tea Board and the industry have now discovered that the output would, in fact, matchthat of the previous year. This has helped the industry to heave a sigh of relief because in the context of the Commerce Minister, Mr. P, Chidambaram, lambasting the industry for stagnancy in production, it could not afford a production loss for the second consecutive year. In 1994, the output drifted to 744 million kgs from 758 million kgs in 1993, but the industry's forecast even during the third quarter was that the output would fall short to hover 725 to 735 million kgs.
展开▼
