Coonoor tea auction volume falls

A volume of 11.35 lakh kg has been catalogued for Sale 36 of the auctions of Coonoor Tea Trade Association, which will conclude on Friday. This is some 46,000 kg less than last week’s offer.

Of the 11.35 lakh kg offered, as much as 10.47 lakh kg belongs to CTC variety and only 88,000 kg orthodox variety. The proportion of orthodox teas continues to be low in both leaf and dust grades. In the leaf counter, only 50,000 kg belongs to orthodox while CTC is 7.06 lakh kg. Among the dusts, only 38,000 kg belongs to orthodox and 3.41 lakh kg CTC. In all, 7.56 lakh kg belongs to Leaf grades and 3.79 lakh kg Dust grades.

Among the bought leaf factories selling CTC teas, only Homedale Tea Factory could enter the high-price bracket of ₹200/kg last week. But, two grades of Homedale Estate’s tea, auctioned by Global Tea Brokers, topped the entire CTC market – the dust grade bought by Om Enterprises for ₹252 a kg and the leaf grade at ₹251.

Quotations with the brokers indicated ₹64-75 a kg for plain Leaf grades and ₹108-128 for the best grades. For plain Dust grades, they ranged ₹67-73 and for the best grades ₹107-122.