India's tea exports likely to be impacted due to Russia-Ukraine crisis

25 Feb 2022 Evaluate

In the wake of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, Tea planters and exporters have expressed worries over India’s tea exports amid possible impact on their shipments to Russia, India's second largest buyer of tea. India Tea Association chairperson Nayantara Palchoudhuri said the Russian market for Indian tea is extremely important as there are payment issues for shipments to Iran, another vital tea export destination. Around 18 per cent of India's tea shipments go to Russia.

She said in the event of the conflict and possible imposition of sanctions by the US, exports to Russia would be ‘impacted adversely in the upcoming season’. However, she said that any significant shock to the tea industry due to the crisis may not be witnessed immediately as the season is about to begin and the bulk of shipments takes place between May and October.

Indian Tea Exporters' Association Chairman Anshuman Kanoria also said the industry stakeholders are ‘extremely worried’ about the crisis. He said ‘There will surely be economic consequences for tea exports in the near term. The impact we have seen straight away is the fall in the value of the Russian Ruble by almost 15 per cent vis-a-vis the US dollar. When the Ruble becomes weak, the capacity of importers to pay also declines’. The Ruble which was 70.43 to the dollar on October 24, last year, was worth 89.74 to the dollar on February 24, 2022.

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