COLOMBO, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's tea industry performed well in 2021 earning 1.3 billion U.S. dollars despite lower yields and higher costs of production, state media reported on Thursday.

Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tea Board Jayampathy Molligoda was quoted by the state-owned Daily News as saying that Sri Lanka earned approximately 1.3 billion U.S. dollars from the export of 288 million kilos of tea in 2021.

Molligoda said the cost of production of Sri Lankan tea is among the highest in the global market and tea production peaked in 2013 and has declined since then. He said auction prices in Kenya and India are cheaper than in Colombo.

The chairman said Sri Lanka needs to "focus more on the front end of the value chain" by marketing the clean, sustainable and wellness aspects of Ceylon Tea.

Tea is Sri Lanka's top agricultural export and accounted for 10.9 percent of total merchandise export revenue in 2021. Enditem