In its efforts to end the ongoing crisis at Kochi Tea auctions, the Tea Board has invited Tea Buyers Association for a personal hearing on July 22 in New Delhi.
The move comes in the wake of Kerala High Court intervention, directing the Board to consider the representations filed by Tea Buyers Association by giving them an opportunity to present their case.
The non-participation of tea buyers — large, medium and small — has impacted Kochi tea sale since the beginning of July, as they opposed certain unfavourable conditions in the newly introduced Pan India tea auctions.
Dharmendra D Vora, the association President, said that some provisions in the Pan India rules especially with regard to division of lots, absence of any terms in splitting the lots and banning of proxy bidding is impacting several small and medium traders at Kochi auctions. The implementation of minimum lot size of 20 bags to be purchased by a single buyer would hinder purchasing/competing power of small and medium traders. The minimum lots size of purchase has been fixed arbitrarily without considering the ground realities prevailing in the Kochi centre, he alleged.
Meanwhile, tea buyers continue to abstain from Kochi auctions, affecting the sales of both leaf and dust in sale no 28 held last week.
In leaf sales, the quantity on offer was 2,27,785 kg and 99 per cent of the quantity remained unsold, where as in dust, the sold quantity was only 26 per cent out of the total 10,69,782 kg on offer.
The auctioneers Forbes, Ewart & Figgis said that leading blenders such as Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation, Tata Global, AVT and HUL lent fair support for CTC dust sale. However, Kerala buyers and exporters abstained from participating pan India auction.
The market for good liquoring teas remained steady to dearer, while prices of other varieties were lower and witnessed heavy withdrawals due to low or lack of bid. All the teas offered in orthodox dust remained unsold out of the total 12,500 kg on offer.