Comments
The turnover at the Coonoor Tea Trade Association (CTTA) dropped 8.04 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period of last year.
This is because despite lowering the prices by ₹5 a kg, there were no takers for nearly five lakh kg to equate the volume sold to last year’s levels.
In all, 13 auctions had been conducted from January to March-end. On many weeks, nearly a quarter of the offer had remained unsold and to liquidate such unsold volume, producers lowered their price to an average of ₹77.90 a kg from ₹81.50 in the first quarter of 2014.
Despite this, the demand was slack for both exports and domestic market. Many times, even upcountry buyers limited their interest to brighter liquoring tea. Collectively, the volume sold was only 1.27 crore kg against 1.32 crore kg last year.
Consequently, the overall turnover dropped to ₹98.93 crore from ₹107.58 crore. This reduction of ₹8.65 crore marked a decline of 8.04 per cent.
If this trend continues the trade fears a shortfall of around ₹35 crore over last year. However, last year itself was a dismal one with earnings eroding by a whopping ₹113 crore.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.