Sri Lanka's tea exports suffered a major blow in March recording the lowest-ever shipment and sharp dip in value as COVID-19 mitigation measures caused disruption to trade, the media reported on Monday.

Tea exports in volume in March amounted to 13.8 million kilos, lowest ever and surpassed the previous lowest of 14 million kilos shipped in April 2009, the Daily Financial Times quoted Forbes and Walker Tea Brokers as saying.

Compared to a year earlier, March 2020 export volume was down by 47.7 per cent or 12.6 million kilos.

"This (decline) is mainly due to the disruption to work during the latter half of the month on account of the COVID-19 pandemic," Forbes and Walker Tea Brokers said.

All categories of exports suffered a significant decrease compared to the corresponding period of 2019.

Similarly, revenue at 1.5 billion LKR for March 2020 shows a decrease of 10.9 billion LKR or by 48 per cent from a year earlier.

Forbes and Walker said January-March 2020 exports amounted to 59.5 million kilos, down by 14.1 million kilos from the corresponding period of last year, the Daily Financial Times reported.

The main categories of exports on a cumulative basis showed a decrease also compared to the corresponding period of 2019.

Total revenue of 49.2 billion LKR for the first quarter of 2020 was lower by Rs. 13.2 billion from 2019.

The FOB value for the period January-March 2020 of 826.39 LKR was a decline of 21.18 LKR per kilo from a year earlier.

When analysing the major importers of Sri Lankan tea, Iraq has secured the first position followed by Turkey and Russia.

Iran, with imports totalling 3.9 million kilos came in fourth place, whilst Azerbaijan, Chile, Saudi Arabia, China and Syria are the other noteworthy importers during the period under review, according to Forbes and Walker Tea Brokers.

It said destinations such as Ukraine have shown a growth in imports during the period under review, whilst Jordan, the UAE and Germany have shown a decrease in imports compared to the corresponding period of 2019.