Output between January and the end of March fell to 20.9 million kilograms from 21.6 million kilograms a year earlier, the Lilongwe-based central bank said in a report published on its website today. It didn’t give a reason for the decline.
Earnings from sales of the leaf dropped to $2.6 million from $2.9 million during the period because of increased supplies of the leaf in Kenya, the bank said.
Tea is Malawi’s second-largest foreign exchange earner, after tobacco, generating 8 percent of total export earnings. The U.K. is typically the largest buyer of tea from Malawi.
To contact the reporter on this story: Frank Jomo in Blantyre at fjomo@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net
