Assam produced 55.41 million kilograms of tea in April 2026, up nearly 34% from a year earlier, with small growers responsible for 30.12 million kilograms, more than half the month's output, according to Tea Board of India figures reported by Sentinel Assam.

Small growers' April output rose 51% from 19.91 million kilograms a year earlier, the figures show. Large estates produced 25.29 million kilograms, up 17% from 21.58 million kilograms in April 2025. The two segments changed relative position over the year: in April 2025 large estates led smallholders by roughly 1.6 million kilograms, and in April 2026 small growers led by nearly five million, their output growing at about three times the pace of the estates.

The month reversed a weak start to the year. A near-total rainfall deficit across January and February cut the March crop by roughly a third, and the April figures suggest the bushes recovered ground once the weather turned. Small growers, the independent farmers who sell green leaf to bought-leaf factories rather than run their own estates, now supply a rising share of Assam's crop.

Assam's cumulative output through April reached 73.80 million kilograms, 37% of India's January-to-April national total of 201.89 million kilograms, the Tea Board figures show. Assam grows more than half of the country's tea across a full year; the smallholder segment, once a supplement to the estates, is an increasingly large share of who grows it.

Sources: Sentinel Assam, Assam Tea Production Registers an Increase in April 2026; Tea Board of India.