September Tea Report: China Exports & US Imports

September 2020 trade data was recently published by the China Tea Marketing Association and the US Census Bureau,

CHINA TEA EXPORTS

• September 2020 total MT was 2.5% above last September
• Total Jan-Sep exports for 2020 exceed 263,000 MT, a decrease of around 4% over the same period 2019
• Export values are up, despite the overall decline in volume
• Total YTD value was up approximately 3.5%, and average $/kg price was up almost 8%

US TEA IMPORTS

• US imports of worldwide black tea fell by about 12%, and green tea fell a little over 10% by volume over the previous year
• China accounted for about 11% of total tea imports, and roughly 40% of all green tea for YTD imports into the US
• Jan - Sep Import volumes of Chinese black teas have fallen nearly 40%, and greens have fallen by almost 20% compared to YTD 2019

At the time of writing, there is no strong indication that the predicted "Shipageddon" is significantly hampering imports/exports at this point. Any delays significant enough to skew data will likely not show until October or later.