The Hindu Business Line : 710 kg of tea offered on first day of e-auction

Fine Cuppa
By Jan ’09 all six auction centres in the country will have e-auctioning.
By Sept ’09 national cyber market for tea will be in place.
e-payment and settlement to be introduced soon.

A. Roy Chowdhury

World’s first: Mr Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Power, inaugurating the world’s first electronic auction of tea, organised by the Calcutta Tea Traders Association in partnership with the Tea Board, in Kolkata on Wednesday. By January 27, the e-auction system would be in place at all the six tea auction centres.

Our Bureau

Kolkata, Nov. 19

The world’s first electronic auction of tea, organised by the Calcutta Tea Traders Association in partnership with Tea Board, was launched here on Wednesday.

A total of 710 kg of tea in five lots were offered for the first day’s e-auction, attracting prices ranging from a low of Rs 142 to a maximum of Rs 210 a kg.

The buyers were Bajaj Enterprise, Gujarat Tea Processors & Packers, Duncans Tea, Asia Tea & Exports Ltd and M.K. Corporation.

CYBER MARKET

Inaugurating the auction, Mr Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of State for Commerce & Power, said by January 27, 2009, the e-auction system, estimated to cost Rs 18 crore, would be in place in country’s all six tea auction centres and by September 2009, there would be a national platform for buying and selling tea.

“By September next year, there will be national cyber market for tea,” he said.

More offerings

Mr Ramesh hoped that henceforth more tea would be offered in auction now that the electronic system was in place.

Till now, an estimated 500 million kg, representing 52 per cent of the total sale was offered in auctions.

He had no doubts that in addition to what was being offered in auction now, anything between five per cent and 10 per cent of the private sales would also be diverted to the e-auction system.

The high quality teas, particularly Darjeeling and Assam orthodox, were now sold through private sales.

The prices in the e-auction system, he felt, need not necessarily be higher than those in the manual auction but would certainly be fairer than before.

Fairer prices

The e-auction systems, already launched for cardamom and tobacco, have proved to be a success, he added.

The Minister indicated that payment and settlement through the electronic mode, so critical for the success of the e-auction system, too, would be introduced as soon as all the tea auction centres were brought under the electronic system.

Storage space

The present auction houses, he said, would be transformed into warehouses and distribution centres of tea.

The warehouses would hold key to the e-auction system and in Kolkata there was an acute shortage of warehousing space, not more than 200,000 sq ft which was inadequate compared with the requirement.

He urged the captains of tea industry to come together to overcome this crisis.

The Minister said other major tea producing countries such as Kenya, Sri Lanka and China were yet to introduce e-auction of tea.

“They all are watching us, keenly observing how our system works,” he pointed out that the technological support had been provided by NSE.IT.

Revive Jalpaiguri centre

Mr Basudeb Banerjee, Chairman of Tea Board, said there was a move to revive the Jalpaiguri tea auction centre which was now defunct and, when operational, it would be on the electronic mode.

Nepal tea trade was also keen to participate in India’s tea auction system, he said.

BETTER REALISATIONS

Ms Roshni Sen, Deputy Chairperson, Tea Board, made a presentation explaining on how the electronic tea auction system in Kolkata, also the home of the world’s first manual tea auction as early as 1861, developed, after initial hiccups.

Mr Gopal Poddar, Chairman of CTTA, expressed the hope that the e-auction of tea would attract more buyers and sellers and entail better price discovery.

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