The Tea Buyers Association of Cochin has voiced concern over the difficulties being faced after the introduction of new changes in Bharat Auction sale 20.

Anil Kumar N Prabhu, president of the association, said it has become a herculean task for buyers to operate in the new system especially with the automatic replacement of sold lots while other lots remain active in the trading screen and with jumbling of lots.

In a representation to the Tea Board Chairman, Prabhu said the sudden appearance of new lots in place of sold lots is preventing buyers from revising their bid price or being able to enter fresh bids in pending lots that appear at the bottom of the screen to compensate or replace missed quantity. All these are happening fast along with jumbling.

Losing bids

Every time buyers have to type the price to revise the bid, that too on multiple lots appearing on the live screen. Buyers are not able to find out quickly about the lots purchased and lots missed out. Because of this, he said inter-state and internal buyers, who purchase against their requirements of their principal buyers, have lost many lots.

“We fail to understand the logic behind this new system and are surprised why the Tea Board has introduced such a system which we believe, no trade association from South India wanted. Instead, if a single button similar to “in” or “out” for increasing the bid price is enabled, all buyers could operate effectively”, he said.

The association urged the Board to revert to the old system that has been followed till last week.

A leading buyer in Coonoor told businessline that the intention of the Tea Board is to speed up the sales process, but it resulted in less participation in a falling market with heavy withdrawals.

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