Three small scale tea factories, popularly called bought leaf tea factories, have excelled in Sale No:35 at the auctions of Coonoor Tea Trade Association (CTTA).
“The Red Dust grade of ‘Lakshmi Estate’ topped the entire auctions when Santhosh Tea Industries Pvt Ltd bought it for ₹327 a kg,” Ravichandran Broos, General Manager, Paramount Tea Marketing Pvt Ltd., who auctioned this tea, told BusinessLine .
“More importantly, this is the highest price in the entire South Indian auctions this week across all categories and grades”, he observed.
“By virtue of this, we have broken our own earlier record of ₹319 set up a fortnight ago,” said H Kannan, Managing Partner of Bengal View (N) Estate Tea Factory which owns ‘Lakshmi Estate’ mark.
“This is a new record as it is the highest price fetched by any of our teas since manufacturing started in our factory in 1965,” he said.
“The Coonoor-based Homedale Tea Factory which has been consistently fetching high prices in the auctions over the years got the second highest price when Madhu Jayanthi International bought it for ₹313 a kg,” said Rajesh Gupta, Managing Director, Global Tea Brokers, who auctioned this tea.
These two were the only teas among all CTC or orthodox from bought leaf or corporate factories which fetched over ₹300/kg at CTTA auctions this week.
“The Broken Orange Pekoe grade of Cross Hill Estate Special, auctioned by us, fetched the third highest price in the entire CTTA auction this week when Belmount Tea and Produce Co bought it for ₹ 288 a kg”, Rajesh Gupta said.
“By virtue of this, we have come closer to our earlier record of ₹291 and this is among the highest prices fetched by any of our teas in a regular auction ever since manufacturing started in our factory in 1945”, said Jagdeep Raju, Director, Cross Hill Tea Factory in Aravenu, now celebrating Platinum Jubilee.