Kolkata, June 4 (IANS): India's tea exports increased by 11.5 per cent to 17.93 million kgs in April this year against 16.08 million kgs in the year-ago month, according to the Tea Board India data.

In value terms, it increased nearly 30 per cent to Rs 401.32 crore against Rs 308.76 crore in April 2018. According to the provisional data, price realisation per kg of tea at Rs 223.83 was 16.57 per cent higher than Rs 192.01 a kg fetched in the year-ago month.

During the month, tea exports to Pakistan stood at 0.85 million kgs, up marginally from 0.83 million kgs exported in the corresponding month of 2018. In case of China, it was down at 0.64 million kgs in April against 0.73 million kgs in the same month last year.

Tea shipments to CIS countries, including Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, were at 3.7 million kgs in April, down from 4.25 million kgs in the same period of last year.

At 0.42 million kgs, exports to the UK were marginally up against 0.41 million kgs shipped in April 2018. At 0.46 million kgs, exports to Germany were down from 0.65 million kgs shipped in April 2018.

Exports to Iran, however, went up sharply to 4.92 million kgs in the period from 1.68 million kgs in the year-ago month.