The falling trend in the offer for the auctions of Coonoor Tea Trade Association continues this week when for Sale No 9 scheduled for Thursday and Friday, a volume of 9.85 lakh kg has been catalogued.
This is as much as 1.31 lakh kg less than the offer for last week’s auctions. It is among the lowest volume of the past many weeks.
According to the UPASI Tea Research Foundation, about 586 hectares of tea in the Nilgiris have been affected by frost in January. Planters contend that it would take at least three months for these charred bushes to come back into bearing stage. So, the volume is likely to be low in coming weeks as well.
Of the 9.85 lakh kg offered, as much as 8.91 lakh kg belongs to CTC variety and only 94,000 kg was orthodox variety. The proportion of orthodox teas continues to be low in both leaf and dust grades. In the leaf counter, only 62,000 kg belongs to orthodox while 5.61 lakh kg was CTC.
Among the dusts, only 32,000 kg belongs to orthodox while 3.30 lakh kg was CTC. In all, 6.23 lakh kg belongs to Leaf grades and 3.32 lakh kg was Dust grades.
The Coonoor-based Homedale Estate Dust grade tea, auctioned by Global Tea Brokers, topped the CTC market last week when Tea Services India Pvt Ltd bought it for ₹241 a kg. Riverside Estate tea, auctioned by Paramount Tea Marketing, followed with Tea Services India Pvt Ltd buying it at ₹200 a kg.
Quotations with the brokers indicated ₹85-₹90 a kg for plain Leaf grades and ₹125-₹140 for the best grades. For plain Dust grades, they ranged ₹82-₹88 and for the best grades ₹125-₹138.