The Coonoor Tea Trade Association (CTTA) has announced the postponement of one auction and cancellation of another auction because of the disturbances caused to trade due to the lockdown restrictions in the nation’s fight against Covid-19.

Accordingly, there will be no auction this week. Sale No: 21 which was scheduled for Thursday (tomorrow) and Friday has been postponed to next week.

“The Leaf sale of this auction (Sale No: 21) will take place on June 3 and the Dust sale on June 4. We have cancelled the next auction (Sale No: 22)”, CTTA Chairman L Vairavan told BusinessLine .

This postponement and cancellation has happened despite The Nilgiris Collector Innocent Divya exempting the tea industry and trade including the auctions, from the ongoing lockdown because of the continuous process of the industry and the declaration of tea as an essential commodity.

“We tried our best to conduct the auctions as per schedule but because of the lockdown, workers are unable to come for loading and unloading works at warehouses”, Vairavan said.

“The warehouses have informed us that The Tea Chests Lifters’ Union had told them that their workers won’t work considering the safety in the current circumstances”, he said.

“The Tea Park warehouse in Karamadai has also reported that it will be closed”, he disclosed.

“We have requested the warehouses to take up the issue with their workers to arrive at some acceptable solution,” he said.

For sale No: 21 which now gets postponed to next week, a volume of 23.90 lakh kg has been catalogued. This means, auctioning of teas worth about ₹30 crore has now been postponed.

It also means, domestic buyers and exporters have to wait for long to procure the teas of their choice through CTTA auctions.

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