ea prices in Bangladesh rose for a fifth consecutive weekly auction on Tuesday on strong demand from buyers and tight supply ahead of the Eid festival, brokers said.
The average price of Bangladeshi tea was 209.45 taka ($2.50) a kg against 208.59 taka per kg at the previous sale a week ago, an official at National Brokers Limited, the country’s largest tea broking firm said.
Around 1.28 million kg of tea was offered at Bangladesh’s sole auction centre in Chittagong, and 1.7 percent was left unsold.
That compared with 4.35 percent unsold in the previous auction, when the offered volumes were 1.47 million kg.
«The market followed a similar trend of the last few weeks, whereby all teas met with a strong demand often at higher rates, particularly as the sale progressed,» the National Brokers said in its market report.
The next auction will be held on Aug. 28, with around 1 million kg on offer.
Around a quarter of Bangladeshi tea is of poorer quality, and prices of good-quality tea are high compared with those of other countries.
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.
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.
Source: in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/14/bangladesh-tea-auction-idINL4E8JE45S20120814
Bangladesh tea prices up for fifth week
