Global tea prices may climb 12 percent in 2012 due to weather changes, the Bloomberg agency cited the largest plantation-owner McLeod Russel India Ltd as saying.

Draughts and frosts that struck world’s leading tea growers, including Sri Lanka and Kenya, have increased the risk of a tea deficit, the Indian tea producer warned.

Prices of fine teas can surge as high as $3 per kg, McLeod‘s Managing Director Aditya Khaitan said. India, world’s second biggest tea grower, may even see a price hike as much as 10% in 2012 from $2.4 per kg in 2011.

This February, tea crops in Kenya, an international leader in black tea production, plunged by 31% compared to 2011. In South Asia, the new agriculture year kicked off in April with a 130 million kg deficit, which exceeded the year-on-year figures by 8.3%.

The Voive of Russia