The Akbar Brothers group has once again topped tea exports from Sri Lanka last year leading in bulk tea exports as well as in packeted tea and ranking number one in total tea exports retaining its record over several consecutive years.

The top exporters in terms of totals were Akbars, followed by Stassen, Van Rees, Jafferjee Brothers, Ceylon Tea Marketing, Unilever and Union Commodities.

In terms of bulk tea exports, both Akbars and Stassen exceeded the 17 million kg marks with the top exporter handling 17.6 million kg against Stassen’s 17.1 million kg and Van Rees 15.9 million kg.

In the packeted tea sector, Akbar Brothers was clear leader with 18.5 million kg against 10.2 million kg by Stassen who ranked number two.

The MJF Group comfortably led the pack in tea bag exports with 3.4 million kg, double the 1.5 million kg by Akbar Brothers who came second.

Small quantities of green tea too are now being exported from Sri Lanka with Stassen (286,724 kg) the lead exporter followed by James Finlays with 78,753 kg.

Unilever and James Finlays are the only major instant tea exporters here with Unilever handing nearly a million kg while Finlay’s had exported just under 400,000 kg of instant tea.