Tea traders in Kochi are pinning hopes on garnering more orders from overseas buyers in the wake of cancellation of auctions in crisis-hit Sri Lanka this week.

The auctioneers Forbes, Ewart & Figgis said tea auction was not held in Sri Lanka this week and the conduct of the next auction will be decided later by this weekend. Normally, Sri Lanka conducts tea auctions every Tuesday.

However, traders told BusinessLine that the cancellation of auctions in the island-nation is likely to benefit South Indian teas in a big way as buyers will start procuring more quantities from the three South Indian auction centres such as Cochin, Coimbatore, and Coonoor. Already exporters to CIS and West Asia are active in Kochi auctions which resulted in a strong demand for orthodox leaf in sale 19 with 88 per cent of the total offered quantity of 2,71,580 kg being sold. The Rupee-Rouble trade has also enabled Russian buyers to procure more quantities, traders said.

Average price realisation up

Deepak Shah, Chairman, South India Tea Exporters Association, said the current developments in Sri Lanka would benefit in the long run. South Indian teas, especially orthodox varieties, are now showing some improvement in prices in the recent period, he said.

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The average price realisation was also up by ₹3 a kg at ₹159 . The market for Nilgiri whole leaf and brokens was firm to dearer, while high-priced teas tended to ease.

However, CTC dust market was down by ₹3-5 on heavy arrivals from production centres at 10,75,047 kg. Blenders together absorbed 71 per cent of the total quantity sold. The average price realisation was down by ₹5 at ₹130. High-priced teas declined by ₹10 and there were heavy withdrawals in medium, plainer especially in powdery grades.

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