Nearly 62 per cent of the offer for Sale 53 of the auctions of Coonoor Tea Trade Association was sold with buyers showing keen interest for some of the speciality teas.

This was a special edition of pan-India e-auction conducted to hail the first International Tea Day (ITD) on the proposal of Tea Board. Auctions were held in different centres across the country with the teas manufactured from the green leaves plucked on ITD.

In all, 6,976.50 kg of various teas was sold at an average price ₹208.47 a kg to fetch a revenue of ₹14.54 lakh.

The top price fetching five tea grades created a new price record among all regular auctions in the whole of South India.

“Of them, the first four — Avataa Virgin green tea (₹6,110 a kg) and Avataa Oolong (₹5,010) were bought by Golden Tips Tea Co Pvt Ltd, Doddabetta Silver Tips (₹4,000) and Kokkalatty Super Gold Silver Tips (₹3,800) were bought by Tea Sip and Taste,” Ravichandran Broos, General Manager, Paramount Tea Marketing Pvt Ltd, who auctioned these teas, told BusinessLine .

The fifth top price fetcher was Havukal SFTGFOP grade auctioned by J Thomas and Co P Ltd and bought by Kumar Enterprises for ₹2,510/kg.

“Among CTC teas, Homedale’s Broken Pekoe, topped when Belmount Tea and Produce Co bought for ₹710 a kg. Although Homedale has been topping the auctions many weeks, this price was all-time high for the factory since it started production 71 years ago,” Rajesh Gupta, Managing Director, Global Tea Brokers, who auctioned this tea, said.

Vigneshwar Speciality’s Broken Orange Pekoe Fanning grade, auctioned by Paramount Tea Marketing, followed when Nisha Enterprises bought it for ₹700.

Kilkotagiri’s two orthodox grades (₹581 and ₹410) and Darmona Estates two CTC grades (₹320 and ₹300) were the others which fetched over ₹300/kg.