India exported 178.75 million kg of tea during calendar 2007, earning Rs 1,810.11 crore at a unit price of Rs 101.26 per kg, the Tea Board said Tuesday giving a final volume figure that is 22% higher than the estimates of 156.71mkg released earlier.

The board?s figures also show a sharp decline of 32.83mkg to 185.32mkg in overall exports during the financial year to March 31, 2008, over the previous year?s figure, mainly because exports to Iraq fell by 34.87mkg over 2006-07.

The board said many north Indian exporters had been reluctant to furnish monthly export information and did so only after repeated reminders and this led to the wide variance between the initial estimates and the final figures.

For the financial year to March 31, 2008, India?s tea exports fetched Rs 1,888.68 crore at a unit price of Rs 101.91 a kg. ?A wide difference has been observed between the estimates and the final figures due to non-submission of export information by tea exporters at the time of estimation of monthly exports for different months of the year,? Tea Board secretary Prabir Lahiri said in a statement. ?The variation? are mainly due to non-submission of monthly information by some leading exporters, especially in north India.?

A leading tea grower, speaking on condition of anonymity, told FE that this mismatch happened every year because it taook time for the tea to be shipped and booked as exports. ?Usually, buyers place orders on expectation of the crop but the actual figure emerges only after the shipment takes place,? he said. Unusually, the board even named the ?prominent defaulters? — Madhujayanti International Ltd, Limtex (India) Ltd, Balmer Lawrie & Co Ltd, Tea Group Exports and Gujarat Tea Processors & Packers Ltd. The board had estimated north Indian exports at 84.06mkg and south Indian at 72.65mkg, while the final figures are 102.72mkg and 76.03mkg respectively.

The board?s data indicate that south Indian exporters are better at furnishing information — the variation between estimates and final figures is just 3.38% in their case as against 18.66% for north Indian exporters for calendar 2007.

?The difference between estimates and final figures has occurred in respect of export through north India to the extent of 22.20% during 2007 and 29.27% during 2007-08, whereas, the difference between estimate and final figures in respect of South India is to the tune of 4.65% during 2007 and 6.81% during 2007-08.

Apart from Iraq, markets to which exports declined were Pakistan (by 8.57mkg), Kenya (5.09mkg), the UK (4.92mkg) and Afghanistan (2.63mkg). Trendwise, higher exports were reported to Russia (by 4.92mkg), Egypt (by 4.19mkg), Iran (by 4.13mkg), the UAE (by 3.14mkg), and Sri Lanka (by 1.78mkg).