PRICE OF TEA REDUCED

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 5, 6 July 1923, Page 8

PRICE OF TEA REDUCED

The removal of tha duty of 3d per pound on teas from British sources of origin has been followed by notifications sent out by packers of teas that prices of all standard brands have been reduced by 4d per pound. On" China, Java, and other teas from non-British producing countries it is'still 2d per pound. The production of tea is reported from all quarters to be very much below the consumptive demand, and the price in India and Ceylon for teas of the kind imported by New Zealand is 90 per cent, to 100 per cent, dearer than when the duty was imposed. A brief history of the Indian and Ceylon markets, the dominating markets of the world, during the past few years, shows that the current high prices for tea are attributable to war conditions. Production was reduced in 1920, at a time when there was a surplus in England of some seventy-one million pounds;, | from then onward ths tea : growing companies reduced production,, the rupee having fallen .from as high as2s 8d in March, 1920, to Is 3|d in July, 1921, so that- growers were for a time selling/teas at 10 per cent, below cost. Some of the weaker companies in India and Ceylon, had to let .their estates go back to jungle; others .carried on on the strictest lines. The result is that production is lagging far behind consumption, and tho prices accordingly keep extremely high. It is estimated by those who study the statistical'position of tei> from week to week that tho production from all countries growing tea is 700 million pounds per annum, wheroas the consumption (in 1922) was 760 'millions. Hie prospects of easior prices in the Colombo and Calcutta markets are not cheerful, and Java and Sumatra will fall into line.' China does" not materially affect the position.

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