The average sale price at the auctions of the Coonoor Tea Trade Association (CTTA) this week crashed to a low of ₹77.77 a kg, the lowest since November 2015.
Prices were about ₹ 20/kg lower than they had been at this time last year and ₹30 lower than at the beginning of 2017.
Clearly, the misfortune in other tea-producing areas appears to have afflicted the Nilgiris tea auctioned through the CTTA.
“Supplies of North Indian teas have been hit due to disruptions in Darjeeling over the agitation for a Gorkhaland and the floods in Assam. But this has not lifted up price sentiment here,” CTTA Chairman Ramesh Bhojarajan told BusinessLine .
“Not that we want to profit from others’ misfortune, but our market too is in a poor state, with less tea being sold despite crashing prices,” he said.
This week, as much as 21 per cent of the offer remained unsold, although prices are at an 18-month low.
“Even quality teas are not fetching the kind of high prices that they were early in 2017,” said Dinesh Raju, Managing Partner of Darmona Tea Industry.
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