The Hindu Business Line : For sunday Prices plummet in Coonoor tea sale

HUGE offerings, reduced presence of buyers, lower bids, heavy withdrawals and technical snag in the e-auctions necessitating the visit of the Tea Board Executive Director, Mr Vikram Kapur, to the auction hall characterised the auctions conducted by the Coonoor Tea Trade Association (CTTA) this week.

Following complaints that the system developed some technical snags preventing the display of some pages, Mr Kapur visited the auction hall. Soon, the problem was rectified and the auctions continued.

"After a minor delay, the auctions proceeded without difficulty. So, there was no need for us to allow manual auctions this week. But, at the same time, in the Coimbatore auctions, the system developed problems and we allowed them to conduct manual auctions", Mr Kapur told Business Line.

Still the attendance of the buyers was thin. "When we auctioned, only 18 buyers were present", an auctioneer said. The rule restricting the divisibility of the lots made the small-scale buyers keep away, he said.

Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) and JV Gokal were active on the bolder leaf grades. Madhu Jayanthi bought some fannings. Indcoserve re-entered the market for the better medium smaller grade dust teas, but HLL did not buy the dust grades. There was no buying for the Defence.

On the export front, some plainer bolder grades were bought by Poland importers for around Rs 30 a kilo. Madhu Jayanthi and Girnar Exports bought limited volume of medium and plainer teas.

The overall demand did not match the huge offering of 14.05 lakh kg. Prices dropped sharply and some teas were knocked off for as low as Rs 29 a kilo. Auctioneers, however, refused to knock off most teas when the bids failed to match the sellers' expectations. Consequently, some 70 per cent of the offerings went unsold.

Quotations held by brokers indicated a bid range of Rs 30-32 a kilo for the plain dusts and Rs 61-65 for bright liquoring teas. The bids for plain leaf grades ranged Rs 29-31, while the brighter liquoring grades fetched Rs 60-65.

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