First off, I do not mean to be crude/unfeeling/ignorant. I understand the incredible destruction those living through this disaster are facing. But I am curious.
I drink tea and I was wondering what effect (if any) this natural disaster will have on tea availability/pricing. Any other exports from the affected region? Also, tomatoe prices skyrocketed recently due to weather related problems with the tomatoe crop. Is there likely to be scarcity of tomatoe sauce/etc down the road?
Good to see our former Vice President has joined the boards here. 
To quote Google:
Monday. My only excuse.
Sri Lanka and India produce a lot of tea, but it isn’t grown right along the coast. Same thing with coffee from Sumatra.
The problems would likely be in transporting the crops to the ports. However, since there is a huge demand for both tea and coffee and it’s a major part of the economies of those countries, they’ll find a way.
I wondered something similar myself. I see as lot of products that are assembled / made / stitched in that region and wondered if the post-disaster effects would hurt their industry.
It seems to me that the areas infrastructure may have been damaged enough to cause problems.
I suppose time will tell.
Affect on tea - probably none. Tea is a mountain crop. I forget what the minimum altitude is, but it’s several thousand feet. Coffee also tends be grown at altitudes well above sea level. Upland areas were simply not affected (except, of course, people who had relatives in lowland areas are undoubtably grieving)
Now certain kinds of seafood - that could be affected. A lot of fishermen were either killed or their boats destroyed. This may allow some fish stocks to rebound from overfishing, but meanwhile there may be less caught to satisfy human wants.
As for the rest - yes, undoubtably there will be some effect on the local economies that might spill onto the global economies to some extent. However, many of the hardest his areas had converted shoreline to tourist resorts, not factories.
Thanks all. I have been in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica but never realized tea was also a mountain crop. I will order my usual amount of darjeeling.
Mrs. HeyHomie swears up and down that the bad weather plagueing the US is a result of the tsunami. She thinks that it “stirred up the ocean” and thus caused some sort of atmospheric chain reaction.
Any truth to this?
I doubt the tsunami had much or any effect on the weather. Just how would an “angry” ocean affect the weather? Did the tsunami make the water warmer or colder?
Now if there had been a Krakatoa like explosion which sent millions of tons of ash into the sky, then there would be a problem.
But IANAGS