The Hindu Business Line : Lower tea volume on offer at Coonoor sale

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Coonoor Feb. 7 A volume of 8.11 lakh kgs has been catalogued for the auctions of the Coonoor Tea Trade Association (CTTA) to take place here on Thursday and Friday.

This is the second lowest volume so far for 2007. The lowest volume of 7.77 lakh kgs was offered last week.

Last year this time, 8.57 lakh kgs had been offered.

Of the 8.11 lakh kgs, only around 6.9 lakhs kgs are said to be the new tea. The balance comes as re-prints of the teas that had not been sold in the previous auctions.

Fresh frostbite

The low volume is due to the frostbite that had reportedly hit more than 1,000 hectares in different pockets of the Nilgiris. This week, fresh frostbite was reported in some low-lying areas and, hence, growers said that they could not harvest the leaves. This is likely to impact the arrivals for the auctions in the coming weeks.

As much as 7.38 lakh kgs of the 8.11 lakh kgs belong to CTC variety and only 0.73 lakh kgs, orthodox variety. Again, 6.05 lakh kgs belong to the leaf grades and only 2.06 lakh kgs, dust grades.

Auctioneers said that the quality of the winter high grown Nilgiris teas has improved and hence should help prices to firm up. If the demand for quality teas continued this week as well, the overall prices should improve as in the previous weeks, they said.

Pakistan is seen to be more active in Mombassa auctions and highly selective in Coonoor auctions.