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P.S. Sundar

EVEN as the Teaserve, the world's first electronic auction centre for tea, celebrated its first birthday on Friday, producers who sold their teas through this centre are counting lesser cash than those who chose any other auction centre.

According to the paper on the "Overview of the present tea situation", presented by the Tea Board Chairman, Mr N.K. Das, at the recent 111th annual conference of the United Planters' Association of Southern India (Upasi), Teaserve recorded the lowest price realisation among all the auction centres in the country. The prices averaged Rs 37.63 a kg.

That means, the Nilgiri producers who chose to sell through this centre instead of the established auctions of the Coonoor Tea Trade Association (CTTA) lost, on an average, Rs 1.37 on every kg. The prices realised at other auction centres were far higher - Coimbatore Rs 43, Kochi, Rs 50, Siliguri Rs 62, Guwahati, Rs 64 and Kolkata, Rs 78.

In fact, the producers support the Teaserve quite unmindful of the lower returns for them. As much as 10.21 lakh kg have so far been sold through this centre — almost equal to the volume of 10.44 lakh kg sold through Coimbatore.

The teas of the co-operative sector, Indco factories, and the Government sector, Tantea, were among the ones sold through the Teaserve.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that the Teaserve auction was launched by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Ms J. Jayalalithaa, on Sept 13 last year to help the producers get more prices eliminating the middlemen operation.

If they had to lose Rs 1.37 on every kilo sold through Teaserve, this alternative system needs a review.

For the week ending August 21, Teaserve posted an average price of Rs 41.33 a kg as against Rs 47.96 by the CTTA. That means, the producers who chose Teaserve to CTTA auctions lost Rs 6 on every kilo of tea sold.

Contending that the century old auctions of the CTTA do not have transparency, the Government launched the Teaserve auctions. But, as of now, in the Teaserve, even the basic information one gets through the CTTA auctions like the volume sold, grades, the buyers, prices, export and domestic purchases are not made available to the public at large. The Teaserve does not publish and circulate the market reports like the way CTTA does to media and public.

Recently, the auctions had to be postponed due to a technological flaw - a thing that has never happened in the regular auctions. In fact, the Tea Board is keen to introduce electronic auctions in all the six general auction centres. Already, this has been done in Coimbatore and Guwahati auctions.

So, a number of lose ends have to be tied up as the Teaserve enters its second year of auctioning this month.

More Stories on : Tea | Plantation Panorama

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