The weekly Dust tea auctions of Coonoor Tea Trade Association which are normally held on Fridays will be held on Saturday this week because the market was closed on Friday for Ramalan / Ramadan festival.
In all, 7.08 lakh kg Dust grade will be offered for this Sale No: 19. Of this, 6.53 lakh kg belongs to CTC variety and 55,000 kg, orthodox variety.
Together with the leaf grades, a total of 22.89 lakh kg is being offered for this sale which will conclude on Saturday.
It is the second highest volume so far this calendar – just 43,000 kg less than the year’s highest volume of 23.32 lakh kg offered a fortnight ago.
This is as much as 2.08 lakh kg more the offer for the previous week and includes some teas unsold in previous auctions but most volume is fresh arrival of the teas manufactured with the green leaf plucked after the recent unseasonal but favourable rains.
“The green tea of Pascoes Woodlands topped the entire auctions last week when Ketti Valley Tea Indian Pvt Ltd bought it for ₹300 a kg,” Ravichandran Broos, General Manager of Paramount Tea Marketing, who auctioned this tea, told BusinessLine.
Among orthodox teas, Kodanad got ₹284, Chamraj ₹271, Kairbetta ₹243, Glendale ₹232, Havukal ₹230 and Nonsuch Orthodox ₹221.
Homedale Estate’s Red Dust grade, auctioned by Global Tea Brokers, topped the CTC auctions when GLT Enterprises bought it for ₹270 a kg. Among other CTC teas, Pinewood Estate got ₹261, Crosshill Estate Special ₹256 and Vigneshwar Estate ₹206.
Quotations with the brokers indicated ₹95-104 a kg for plain Leaf grades and ₹ 160-182 for the best grades. For plain Dust grades, they ranged ₹100-102 and for the best grades, ₹150-206.
The Coonoor tea auctions are being held after the Nilgiris collector Innocent Divya exempted them from the ongoing lockdown in Tamil Nadu to tackle the Covid pandemic.
Stating that tea is an essential commodity, she accorded permission for conduct of e-auction and other operations relating to tea trade, manufacture and plantation, except in containment zones.