The Hindu Business Line : Coonoor tea price drops

Following the strike of the tea chest lifters who are demanding more wages, the buyers expressed hesitation to purchase at the auctions of the Coonoor Tea Trade Association (CTTA) here on Friday which led to a decline of around Rs 2 a kg over the previous week.

Most leaf grades managed to be steady, but the dust grades suffered a price decline as the union announced the intensifying of the strike while the sale was in progress. "There would be no point in our purchasing teas which cannot be moved from the warehouses. Unless we sell them in the retail market, we will not get the returns," a buyer told Business Line.

Tech snag

Besides, with the computer system developing some problem, e-auction could not be conducted for the dust grades. The entire volume was sold manually. This restricted outstation bids and complicated the division of lots leading to low bids.

Among the corporate buyers, Hindustan Lever Ltd operated on the better medium grades. Madhu Jayanthi lent fair support for fannings grades.

On the export front, Pakistan stepped up its purchases, as some orders booked earlier remained unfulfilled. This helped the prices to move up to Rs 47 a kg, while some odd purchases were made for Rs 49. They preferred clean black bolder dusts.

CIS purchasers picked up teas for up to Rs 45, while those for Iraq were selective. They did not buy orthodox much. Wherever they bought, the price was Rs 44-46.

Withdrawals

There were withdrawals of some 20 per cent of the teas on offer principally because of the low demand for the orthodox treas. Liquoring bolder brokens also suffered withdrawals.

Clean, black, smaller brokens and fannings got Rs 2-3 a kg more.

Among the orthodox teas from the corporate sector, Tiger Hill got the highest price of Rs 120 a kg, followed by Corsely Rs 117, Curzon Rs 105 and Kodanaad RS 100.

Quotations available with the brokers indicated bids ranging from Rs 39-40 a kg for the plain leaf grades and Rs 62-70 for the brighter liquoring grades. For the plain dust grades, the bids ranged from Rs 40-42, while for the brighter liquoring grades, Rs 64-70.