The turnover of the auctions of Coonoor Tea Trade Association (CTTA) in the first quarter of current year has increased by as much as 24.31 per cent over the same period of 2018.

This has happened because even as the price has increased by ₹7.40 a kg, the volume sold has risen by 18 lakh kg reveals our analysis of the Market reports.

Since the Tea Board ordered the closure of factories in North India from December 10 to rid the market of substandard teas during winter, the availability of North India teas dried up in the first quarter of current year.

So, the upcountry traders stepped up their purchase in South Indian auctions, including in Coonoor. This increased the demand and pushed up the prices. So much so, in many auctions in the first quarter, the average price rose above ₹100 a kg after several months. Besides, the high-grown winter orthodox teas in The Nilgiris were a premium product sought after even by exporters.

This pushed up the average price to ₹100.19 a kg from ₹92.79 in the first quarter of 2018.

Nevertheless, the traders continued to buy the tea for sustenance of their business.

This helped the volume sold to rise to 1.37 crore kg from 1.19 crore kg in the first quarter of 2018.

With more teas being sold at higher price, the overall realisation increased to ₹ 137.26 crore from ₹110.42 crore.

This increase of ₹ 26.84 crore marked a gain of 24.31 per cent.

This increase lay spread among the tea manufacturers, growers, buyers, brokers and workers.

Traders expect that if this trend were to continue in coming months, this year’s overall realisation would be as much as ₹108 crore more than 2018.

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