A volume of 11.42 lakh kg has been catalogued for Sale No: 15 of Coonoor Tea Trade Association which will conclude on Friday.

This is about 1.68 lakh kg more than last week’s offer. Still, it is among the lowest volumes of the past many months.

Of the 11.42 lakh kg offered, as much as 10.01 lakh kg belongs to CTC variety and only 1.41 lakh kg, orthodox variety. The proportion of orthodox teas continues to be low in both leaf and dust grades. In the leaf counter, only 91,000 kg belongs to orthodox while 6.71 lakh kg, CTC. Among the dusts, only 50,000 kg belongs to orthodox while 3.30 lakh kg, CTC. In all, 7.62 lakh kg belongs to Leaf grades and 3.80 lakh kg, Dust grades.

Homedale Tea Factory had created a hat-trick last week by topping the entire auctions for the third consecutive week. Its Red Dust grade, auctioned by Global Tea Brokers, topped when Oswal tea Traders bought it for ₹250 a kg. This beat the prices of even export-oriented orthodox teas from corporate sector. This was the only CTC tea which entered the high-price bracket of ₹200 a kg.

Quotations with the brokers indicated ₹87-93 a kg for plain Leaf grades and ₹115-125 for the best grades. For plain Dust grades, they ranged ₹88-95 and for the best grades, ₹120-132.