Volume hits 6-week low at Coonoor post-diwali auctions

Market re-opens on Saturday after closure for Diwali holidays but with lower volume of tea for the auctions of Coonoor Tea Trade Association.

For sale 44, a volume of 18.53 lakh kg has been catalogued. This is as much as 2.90 lakh kg less than the offer for the previous sale.

Also, it is the lowest volume of the last six weeks, the previous low being 18.12 lakh kg offered on September 24.

With 25 to 47 per cent of the offer in the last one month remaining unsold, this week’s offer includes some teas which were withdrawn in the previous weeks.

Too many wet days with inadequate sunshine hours had reduced the harvest and hence the volume of manufactured tea, producers said.

Of the 18.53 lakh kg offered for this week’s auctions, as much as 17.66 lakh kg belongs to CTC variety and only 87,000 kg orthodox variety.In the leaf tea counter, only 60,000 kg belongs to orthodox while 12.78 lakh kg, CTC. Among the dust tea, only 27,000 kg belongs to orthodox while 4.88 lakh kg, CTC. In all, 13.38 lakh kg belongs to Leaf grades and 5.15 lakh kg, Dust grades.

The bought-leaf tea factory, Homedale Tea Factory, created a price record when its Red Dust grade, auctioned by Global Tea Auctioneers Private Ltd., was bought by Badhusha Tea Company for ₹362 a kg. This was the highest price among all teas on offer – CTC or orthodox, all grades – Dust or Leaf and from any factory – bought leaf or corporate. Besides, it was the only tea which fetched over ₹300/kg in the whole auction. Among other CTC teas, Pinewood Estate got ₹229 and Shanthi Supreme ₹201.

Quotations with the brokers indicated ₹65-67 a kg for plain Leaf grades and ₹130-149 for the best grades. For plain Dust grades, they ranged ₹62-71 and for the best grades, ₹140-196.

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