Tea prices in Bangladesh eased in a second straight weekly auction on Tuesday on a slight improvement in supplies, though strong demand limited the downside, brokers said.
The average price of Bangladeshi tea was 211.08 taka ($2.6) a kg against 211.16 taka per kg at the previous sale a week ago, an official at National Brokers Limited, the country’s largest tea broking firm, said.
More than 1.94 million kg of tea was offered at Bangladesh’s sole auction centre in Chittagong, and 5.92 percent was left unsold.
That compared with 2.24 percent unsold in the previous auction, when 1.91 million kg was offered.
«Once again a strong market prevailed and the good liquoring varieties continued to attract strong interest from buyers at often dearer rates, however, it eased towards the close,» the National Brokers said in its market report.
The next auction will be on Sept. 25 for around 1.8 million kg.
There was huge demand for good-quality tea throughout the 2011/12 year, with the average price rising to around 130 taka from 104 taka a year earlier, brokers said.
Tea offered at the Chittagong auction is mostly bought by domestic buyers.
Bangladesh’s tax authority in January imposed a 25 percent duty on imports of tea to safeguard the local industry.
Around a quarter of Bangladeshi tea is of poor quality, whereas prices of good-quality tea are higher compared with the same quality tea in other countries.
The south Asian country produces 60 million kg of tea a year against demand of 56 million kg. But tea consumption is rising by 4.5 percent annually, in line with steady economic growth.
Following are the results of the auction in Bangladesh taka per kg.
BROKENS Bold/Large Brokens 200.00 — 204.00 Medium Brokens 209.00 — 211.00 Small Brokens 210.00 — 213.00 Plain Brokens 185.00 — 195.00
FANNINGS Best Fannings 211.00 — 213.00 Good Fannings 209.00 — 211.00 Medium Fannings 207.00 — 208.00 Plain Fannings 185.00 — 195.00
DUST Pekoe Dust Not quoted Red Dust 199.00 — 231.00 Dust 200.00 — 218.00 Churamoni Dust 200.00 — 244.00
Source: in.reuters.com/article/2012/09/18/bangladesh-tea-auction-idINL4E8KI3LL20120918
