Kolkata, Feb 12 (IANS): India's tea exports decreased marginally to 249.11 million kg in 2018 from 251.91 million kg exported in the previous year, according to data from Tea Board India.

Provisional data from the board also suggested that tea export, in value terms, in the last calendar year was up by about 3 per cent to Rs 5,132.37 crore as against Rs 4,987.59 crore in the year-ago period.

Exports to neighbouring Pakistan and China went up while the shipments to Germany, the UK and CIS countries were down in volume terms.

Tea exports to neighbouring Pakistan stood at 15.83 million kg in the January-December period, as against 14.73 million kgs exported in 2017.

The crop exports to China at 10.22 million kg during the period were up as against 8.52 million kg in the same period the previous year.

The board's data also said tea shipments to Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and others, were at 61.10 million kg in the January-December of 2018, down from 64 million kg exported in the previous year.

Exports to the UK (15.34 million kg) and Germany (8.91 million kg) were down against the corresponding period of the previous year at 16.58 million kg and 10.93 million kg respectively.

About 10.46 million kg of tea was exported to the US in the period under review, down by 26 per cent from 14.16 million kg shipped out to the country.

Tea exports to Iran, however, went up to 30.60 million kg in the period from 29.57 million kg in the year-ago period.

As much as 11.36 million kg of tea was shipped out to Egypt during the last calendar year, up marginally from 11.02 million kg in the previous year.