As per the most recent report published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United
Nations, only 11 nations are producing areca nut globally. As per the report, total areca nut
production was 22.11 lakh Tonnes of areca nut in 2020 which is a whopping 21.9%
increase compared to 2019 production figures. Similarly, areca nut production
in 2019 had clocked about 17.4% increase compared to 2018 production figures.
There is a significant year on years increase in the global areca nut production.
Among all the
nations, India is the major producer, contributing 62.5 % to the global areca
nut production in 2020. Bangladesh and Myanmar are the other two major
producers. All the three countries together contributed for 86.7% of world
areca nut production in 2020 and 83.6% in 2019.
Among the 11
nations listed by FAO, China & Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and
Nepal, had contributed 19.1% of the global areca nut production in 2018. Total tonnage of areca nut produced in those
countries remained more or less constant over 2018 to 2020 (at about 2,75,000
Tonnes). Whereas their contribution decreased to 12.5 % in 2020, showing a dip
of 6.6% global share compared to 2018 figures. This is due to the massive
increase in areca nut production in India. The total tonnage in India increased
from 8,33,000 Tonnes in 2018 to 13,82,000 Tonnes in 2020.
Among all the
areca nut producing nations, India is the leading producer and showed a massive
53.38% increase in areca nut production in 2020 compared to its previous year. Bangladesh,
Bhutan, Indonesia, Myanmar and Sri Lanka too showed a steady increase in areca
nut production year on year. However, the areca nut production is more or less
stable in China/Taiwan. On the contrary, areca nut production in Thailand is showing
a steady decreasing trend during 2018 to 2020.
Interestingly,
nations like Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Laos which are known to produce and
consume areca nut are not figured in the report published by FAO. Perhaps, due
to the insignificant production figures & acreage of areca nut plantations,
their names have been omitted.
The detailed
data is presented in the following table. The data was compiled from the
detailed reports of production of crops & live stocks of East Asian
countries published by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations
(UN) in March 2022.
Please note: Complete data on the global areca nut production for the year 2021 and beyond, is not yet been made available by FAO, United Nations. As and when the data is available, it will be discussed in my Blog.
